| Boustrophedon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 2008 | |||
| Recorded | September 2004 | |||
| Venue | Muffathalle Munich, Germany | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 59:15 | |||
| Label | ECM ECM 1873 | |||
| Producer | Steve Lake | |||
| Evan Parker chronology | ||||
| ||||
Boustrophedon is a live album by free jazz saxophonist and composer Evan Parker and the Transatlantic Art Ensemble, featuring Roscoe Mitchell, recorded in Germany in September 2004 and released on ECM in 2008. [1]
The album came about when, in 2003, Munich's cultural attaché contacted ECM and inquired as to which musicians might be appropriate for a symposium focusing on improvisation as part of the compositional process. ECM recommended Parker and Roscoe Mitchell, and the two were then commissioned to prepare music for an ensemble which would be hand-picked by the two of them, for concerts to be held in Munich in September 2004. The ensemble heard on the recording, referred to as the "Transatlantic Art Ensemble", consisted of players from the U.S. and U.K. drawn from Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, members of which can be heard on the ECM recordings The Eleventh Hour and The Moment's Energy , and Mitchell's Note Factory group, members of which also appear on the ECM recordings Nine to Get Ready and Far Side . [2] The Transatlantic Art Ensemble can also be heard on the Mitchell album Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 , which was recorded as part of the same symposium, and which serves as a companion to Parker's album. [3]
Each of the work's six "Furrows" (the title Boustrophedon translates as "like an ox plowing") presents the performers with "a combination of detailed written music for the players, specific performance instructions and 'open' areas." [3] Parker commented that he wanted to explore a musical space "between Gil Evans and Luigi Nono", and stated: "I wanted to use some of the big chords that Slonimsky talks about: all these very big all-interval structures." [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [4] |
| The Guardian | [5] |
The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 3½ stars stating "This music is not jazz -- free or otherwise -- nor is it merely classical formalism or improvisation deconstruction. Instead, Parker's compositions are scored with the idea of bringing together, through his very European outlook, the different ways region, distance, cultural difference, and discipline combine to make something else: a new work that maintains an identity that is transcultural and trans-aesthetic". [4]
Writing for The Guardian, John Fordham praised "the seamless joining of conventionally tonal music (even some jazzy phrasing and riffing) with a spikier vocabulary and some startling solos from all across the contemporary-music soundscape" and called the album "a triumph for Parker, who's known a few in his revolutionary career." [5]
In a review for All About Jazz, Budd Kopman wrote: "What is fascinating is how expertly Parker has merged composition... with improvisation... As the music unfolds, and the individual parts and lines in varying registers come together, the result sounds directed and controlled, hence composed. However, each particular part, when listened to in isolated concentration, sounds very free (within the constraints of the surrounding music) and, hence, improvised... With Boustrophedon Parker presents music that defies categorization and gives meaning to space and time during its duration." [6]
Roscoe Mitchell is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz stated in 2004 that he had been "at the forefront of modern music" for more than 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast". In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Evan Shaw Parker is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation.
Barry John Guy is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there.
Tani Tabbal is a jazz drummer who has worked with Roscoe Mitchell, David Murray, and Cassandra Wilson.
Paul Lytton is an English free jazz and free improvising percussionist.
Nice Guys is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, recorded in May 1978 and released on ECM the following year—their debut for the label. The quintet features trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophinists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell and rhythm section Malachi Favors Maghostut and Famoudou Don Moye.
Appearing Nightly is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley, recorded in Paris in 2006 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 2008. Bley's compositions and arrangements incorporate many references to big bands and jazz standards from the swing era. The album contains two compositions commissioned by the Jazz Orchestra of Sardinia, and a suite inspired by nightclubs and big bands of the 1950s commissioned for the Monterey Jazz Festival.
The Lost Chords find Paolo Fresu is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley with Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow, and Billy Drummond and Paolo Fresu recorded in Europe in 2007 and released on the Watt/ECM label.
L'imparfait des langues is an album by French jazz musician Louis Sclavis, recorded in April 2005 and released by ECM in 2007, his fifth for label, and twelfth overall.
Sankt Gerold is a live album by pianist Paul Bley recorded at the Propstei Sankt Gerold in April 1996 and released on ECM in October 2000. The trio features saxophonist Evan Parker and bassist Barre Phillips.
Nine to Get Ready is an album by American jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell recorded in May 1997 and released on ECM in 1999. The nonet features brass section Hugh Ragin and George Lewis, and double-rhythm section Matthew Shipp and Craig Taborn, Jaribu Shahid and William Parker, and Tani Tabbal and Gerald Cleaver.
Far Side is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory recorded at the Stadtsaal in Burghausen, Germany on March 17, 2007, and released on ECM in 2010.
Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell recorded in Germany in September 2004 and released on ECM in 2007.
Juan Condori is an album by the Dino Saluzzi Group, recorded in October 2005 and released on ECM the following year.
Memory/Vision is a live album by the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo in October 2002 and released on ECM the following year.
The Eleventh Hour is an album by British saxophonist and improvisor Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded in November 2004 and released on ECM the following year.
The Moment's Energy is an live album by the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in November 2007 and released on ECM in 2009.
Fleuve is the second album credited to the Pierre Favre Ensemble, recorded in Switzerland in October 2005 and released on ECM October the following year—twenty two years after the ensemble's 1984 debut, Singing Drums, presenting a new line-up that departed from the previous incarnation's all-percussion sound. The septet now included harp, double clarinet, double bass, tuba, guitar, bass guitar, soprano saxophone, and serpent—an instrument rarely used in jazz.
Made in Chicago is a live album by drummer and composer Jack DeJohnette recorded at the 35th Chicago Jazz Festival on August 29, 2013 and released on ECM in March 2015. The quintet features fellow Chicagoan musicians pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, bassist Larry Gray and saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill—a reunion of DeJohnette with colleagues from Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
Jaribu Abdurahman Shahid is an American jazz bassist. He plays both double-bass and electric bass.
