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Live:
The Herald December 18 2006
Instant music with considerable spark
ROB ADAMS
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra CCA, Glasgow The late saxophonist Albert Ayler once memorably described his period of study at an august American seat of musical learning with the words "the first year I played clarinet, the second year I played ... golf." Nothing quite so flippant happened in Steve Beresford's concert with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, but in the first half Beresford played piano and in the second he played the orchestra, with notably contrasting results. GIO has developed admirably in its relatively short existence, winning an international reputation and releasing two well-received recordings, and this outing with one of the chief architects of the European improvising scene establishes another landmark in a series of collaborations with figures of such repute. The collective's understanding allows spontaneous pieces to develop organically and the opening set, if at times a little static, produced attractive, underplayed ripples of sound. These ripples at one point grew into a massive, powerful and moving swell before the 20-strong ensemble showed remarkable discipline in letting the sound gradually fade. With Beresford wielding the baton and using hand signals and body language to cajole what he wanted from the musicians, the second set was a more mettlesome, restless and ultimately more consistently compelling affair. Pockets of instruments, including voice, would be invited to set up figures or chattering motifs and, depending on Beresford's inclination, washes of larger sounds, percussive exclamations, robust chords, quick-fire rhythms or elemental themes were added. Watching Beresford at work was just as fascinating as hearing the music his methods produced and the obvious concentration and responsiveness of the musicians lent something of a theatrical quality, as well as creating instant music with considerable spark.
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, CCA, Glasgow
ROB ADAMS
December 19th 2005
At the end of a year which has seen collaborations with guitarist Fred
Frith and vocalist Maggie Nicols added to their already impressive list
of work with major figures from the musical world they inhabit, Glasgow
Improvisers Orchestra could afford to look back with satisfaction and
look ahead with justifiable anticipation. Their future may depend to
some extent on the continued support of the CCAs incoming director as
Graham McKenzie leaves to take over at Huddersfield Contemporary Music
Festival. On the evidence of this performance, though, the collective
has much to offer as an in-house project.
Collective is the word, too. The 16 musicians gathered here showed a
genuine sensitivity towards the common good. There's no overplaying.
Indeed, much of this music - moody, contemplative and impressionistic -
was given only the lightest of touches. Presented in easily digested
segments, the programme varied between free improvisations and pieces,
such as the Japanese flavoured Isabella's Koyo, that suggested they were
working to at least a skeletal prepared framework. Spokesman Raymond
MacDonald occasionally stepped up-front to conduct staccato full-band
punctuations. Otherwise, it was entirely self-policed, mixing
performance art by way of a kind of origami-by-paper-shredder sequence
and spinning mutes with plaintive trumpet moans against quietly
industrious saxophones, guitars and percussion. With its membership
drawn from jazz, experimental pop, folk and contemporary classical
backgrounds and an instrumentation encompassing Scottish harp, voice and
electronics, GIO can certainly claim to be multi-cultural. That it
combines all these elements into such a well-tempered, if not perhaps
always riveting output, can only be to its credit. At the end of a year
which has seen collaborations with guitarist Fred Frith and vocalist
Maggie Nicols added to their already impressive list of work with major
figures from the musical world they inhabit, Glasgow Improvisers
Orchestra could afford to look back with satisfaction and look ahead
with justifiable anticipation.
Their future may depend to some extent on the continued support of the
CCAs incoming director as Graham McKenzie leaves to take over at
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. On the evidence of this
performance, though, the collective has much to offer as an in-house
project. Collective is the word, too. The 16 musicians gathered here
showed a genuine sensitivity towards the common good. There's no
overplaying. Indeed, much of this music - moody, contemplative and
impressionistic - was given only the lightest of touches. Presented in
easily digested segments, the programme varied between free
improvisations and pieces, such as the Japanese flavoured Isabella's
Koyo, that suggested they were working to at least a skeletal prepared
framework. Spokesman Raymond MacDonald occasionally stepped up-front to
conduct staccato full-band punctuations. Otherwise, it was entirely
self-policed, mixing performance art by way of a kind of
origami-by-paper-shredder sequence and spinning mutes with plaintive
trumpet moans against quietly industrious saxophones, guitars and
percussion. With its membership drawn from jazz, experimental pop, folk
and contemporary classical backgrounds and an instrumentation
encompassing Scottish harp, voice and electronics, GIO can certainly
claim to be multi-cultural. That it combines all these elements into
such a well-tempered, if not perhaps always riveting output, can only be
to its credit.
Monday 15 Dec 2003 Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
To hear Saturday night's performance, you'd be hard pushed to guess that Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra has been extant for little over a year. To hear a 17-piece jazz group so new that could play not only with fluid invention, but with such coherence, is rare to say the least. The fact that they came together, however, in order to work with Evan Parker demonstrates their pedigree. Over the course of an hour and a half, they played six pieces which were as much about playing with your instruments (tapping its body; hitting it with a crushed-up plastic cup) as playing it. Rotating's Mexican wave of episodes - a trumpet and a lush double bass duet here, a spellbinding drum workout there - gave each member of the orchestra a chance to stand up and be counted. Echoes of Basil Kirchin's layered, atmospheric soundscapes and of Albert Ayloer's free approach were mixed in with more conventional, though no less inspired, tropes. In less skilled hands it might have fallen flat, but this was extraordinary stuff. Leon McDermott
Sudeutsches Zeitung
A beautiful second leg (return game?) The highpoint of the Munich jazz year could have happened without the public knowing were it not for the existence of some prominent names such as the British saxophone legend Evan Parker on the programme. Because of this the public was in the majority in the Einstein-Kulturzentrum when the 17 musicians of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra stepped onto the stage. On the invitation of the Kultureferats and the ICI Forum Munich, this unique Scottish orchestra, under the leadership of saxophonist Raymond McDonald, was heard in Munich for the first time. In May of this year, the Munich representatives of the ICI were guests of the CCA, home of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO), doing a joint workshop. There was musical and personal chemistry right from the start. The second leg of this Bavarian-Scottish music exchange in Munich started the evening before the concert with a workshop for improvisation ensembles (instrumental groupings…?). And these warmups showed their positive effect on the members of the orchestras from the outset. The purely acoustic Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra developed its improvisations in an extremely disciplined way, concentrated in six sections spanning two hours. Only two of these 'pieces' were based on relatively structured foundations of a composer. Otherwise the spontaneous formation of the music was created by the free playing of the collective. In playing together, the musicians understood how to make a concert full of suspense. The collaboration of the old master Parker naturally lent the whole evening a clamorous note. Besides that, the GIO has proven with this concert that even without prominent support it is in a position to play in the premier league of the international improvisation scene.
CDs:
Point of Departure online magazine.
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with Barry Guy
Falkirk
FMR 168 10706
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
Modeled somewhat on the lines of the London Improvisers Orchestra, but with, dare a compatriot say, a greater internal democracy and an air of enterprise
characteristic of the Scots. This collaboration with bassist and composer Barry
Guy is just the latest in a sequence of remarkable associations set up by GIO
(and largely by straw-boss Raymond MacDonald, whose working group is embedded in
the orchestra). Previously, the ensemble has workshopped and improvised with
Evan Parker and Maggie Nicols (both of these issued on record), Keith Rowe,
Harry Beckett, Keith Tippett (a now regular associate of the Burt-MacDonald
axis) and Gunter Baby Sommer, who has been touring a duo project with MacDonald
this summer.
Heady times, then, for musicians who until relatively recently have had few
convincing outlets for free improvised music on this scale. The main event on
Falkirk (named after the small, post-industrial town in central Scotland
boasting a fine venue in the lovely Callendar House) is a section from Guy's
Witch Gong Game, an open score inspired by the work of Scots-born abstract
expressionist Alan Davie, who is himself a saxophonist and improviser. Typical
of Guy's history with the London Jazz Composer's Orchestra, the basic language
is a subtle blend of structure and freedom, with certain passages very strictly
interpreted, others left entirely open.
The immediate impression, curiously, is a large-scale work by another great
bassist, Charles Mingus. The furious horn clarions, rumbling transitions and
simultaneously improvised lines often veer close to some of Mingus' posthumously
performed ensemble charts. Guy, though, has a deep understanding of Baroque and
classical music, and there are elements throughout the piece of concertante and
ripieno passages, not used in any normative or ironically post-modernist way,
but grafted securely into an impressive structure. Maya Homburger's Baroque
violin and Nicola MacDonald's voice are particularly important elements in a
piece that balances yin and yang elements with utmost delicacy and daring.
It had been planned to record a further Guy composition, but improvisation is
what GIO does best and the opening fifteen minutes of the disc offers a vivid
glimpse of an increasingly individual sound-world, whose less familiar elements, shakuhachi, the seemingly omnicompetent Padden's range of sounds, twinned
guitars and basses, are never highlighted merely for the sake of idiosyncrasy,
but always melded into the collective.
The musicians themselves engineered and produced the recording, which is further
testimony to their determination and skill. Compared to recent discs by their
London near-namesakes, this is almost studio quality; rich, nuanced music, with
an impressive depth of focus and aural detail.Brian Morton - Points of Departure
GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA with BARRY GUY - Falkirk (FMR)
Although they have already released two discs with the likes of Evan
Parker and Maggie Nicols, ?Falkirk? marks my first encounter with the
GIO, a collective of clever musicians coming from the most disparate
backgrounds (the press release defines them as ?jazz, contemporary
classical, experimental pop and sound art?). The CD, recorded live at
Falkirk?s Callendar House in 2005, contains a graciously variegated
16-minute improvisation and a very long piece by double bassist and
composer Barry Guy - a collaborator of the Orchestra since the beginning
in 2002 - called ?Witch Gong Game II/10?. In this track, which is
obviously the album?s backbone, the score consists of a set of panels
containing painter and percussionist Alan Davie?s graphic signs, which
should indicate ?different kinds of music floating over a black void?.
This implies a symbolic message of unity and communion through the act of
playing together, whatever the genre and the technical expertise
involved, in ?the darkness of an indifferent universe?. Besides Guy,
violinist Maya Homburger is featured as a special guest. The aim is high
given the artistic intent, yet the ensemble is tight enough to guarantee
several moments of really interesting emotional outburst, swaying music
that changes in speed and intensity at the flick of a switch but succeeds
in making the listener ?reflect about the difficulty? rather than ?look
for distractions?. In a few occasions, the mixture of articulation and
freedom made me think of Keith Tippett?s Centipede; elsewhere, beautiful
horn arrangements lead to territories associable to Frank Zappa?s work
with the London Symphony Orchestra. This stuff blasts frequently and rubs
rarely, all the while giving the idea of a serious commitment from the
concerned parts.Massamo Ricci Touching Extremes
THE GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA WITH BARRY GUY Falkirk (FMR Records
"I can't quite shake the conviction that reviews of free music in
non-specialist publications should carry a kind of health warning, so
beware that this disc might strike the uninitiated as so much meaningless
racket (then again it may surprise you).
For those with an interest in the field, or who are simply curious, the
Glasgow-based ensemble is a rare phenomenon in a field dominated by small
groups. Thay have been assiduous in documenting their work on disc, a
notable characteristic of the genre, and have instigated a number of
notable collaborations.
This 2005 project saw them work with bassist Barry Guy on his lengthy Witch
Gong Game II/10 employing a graphic score inspired by the work of Scottish
painter Alan Davie. It is prefaced by a shorter GIO improvisation, and both
pieces explore the full range of the sound-generating possibilities of
their diverse instrumentation." - Kenny Mathieson - Scotsman
THE GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA WITH BARRY GUY Falkirk (FMR Records,
FMRCD168-i0706): Auf Releases des FMR-Labels in Chelmsford, Essex, bin ich
bisher nur second hand gestoßen. Dabei ist der Output absolut
bemerkenswert und für Paul Dunmall, Frode Gjerstad, Dirk
Wachtelaer/Vanishing Pictures oder Trevor Watts/Amalgam gibt es kaum eine
ergiebigere Adresse. Oder für die schottische George Burt/Raymond
MacDonald-Connection. Burt, die MacDonalds & George Lyle sind quasi ein
harter Kern und die einzigen mir vertrauten Namen im GIO, einer 2002
entstandenen Großformation, das den Clinch mit Mavericks der Freien Musik
sucht, mit Evan Parker (Munich & Glasgow, 2004) oder Maggie Nicols (Which
Way Did He Go?, 2005) und nun mit Barry Guy, dessen LJCO man sich als
ästhetisches Role Model vorstellen darf. Falkirk entstand nach einer
Proben- und Workshopwoche als Konzertmitschnitt am 22.10.2005 im Callender
House, Falkirk. Zum Aufheizen erklingt die viertelstündige
?Improvisation?, ein kollektives Freispiel der ?alten? Schule, der Tanz
eines 20-köpfigen ?Hundertfüßers?. Hauptsache war jedoch anschließend die
Neuaufführung von Guys grafisch notierter Komposition ?Witch Gong II/10?,
die er schon 1994 in einer kanadischen Version mit dem NOW Orchestra
eingespielt hat (Maya 9402). Zu diesem 50-Minüter hatte Guy die Malerei
von Alan Davie angeregt, dem 1920 in Grangemouth bei Falkirk geborenen
Hauptvertreter des schottischen Modernismus, selbst auch Jazzer, der u. a.
1974 sogar eine LP mit Tony Oxley einspielte. Guy nahm Davies archaische
Visionen eines ?Rune Readers? und ?Signmakers?, Asger Jorn wiedergeboren
als Aborigine, zum Anstoß für eine ?wilde Blasmusik?, eine furiose
Kulmulation von Phantasie und Energie, die Davies ?wildes Denken? in
Wildwuchs und Buschfeuer umsetzt. Neben den 11 Bläsern fällt der Stimme
von Nicola MacDonald eine Hauptrolle zu, die einsetzt, nachdem der erste
Sturm verebbt, stammelnd und zungenredend, von üppigen Klangwucherungen
umschlungen. Guy bündelt und dirigiert die einzelnen Stränge, hält
inmitten der Kakophonie eine organische Ordnung aufrecht. Er schafft
Lichtungen, dünnt das Gestrüpp aus, lässt zarte Keime ihre Heliotropie
ausleben, Flöten, Cello, Maya Homburgers Barockvioline. Dann fällt der
Dschungel wieder in seinen eigenen Rhythmus, ein perverses Blühen und
dämmriges Delirieren, das MacDonald Zunge befällt, die wie im Schlaf zu
reden beginnt - sleep sleep leaves leaping. Noch einmal vereinen sich die
Bläser zu hymnischer Klangpracht, die die Stimme mitreißt, dann kurz den
Atem anhält - bis ein Trommelwirbel alle dazu bringt, sich kopfüber in
eine finale Kakophonie zu stürzen.
Bad Alchemy
Rigobert DittmannGlasgow Improvisers Orchestra & Maggie Nicols
Which Way Did He Go
FMR CD158-i0505
It's always a delight to welcome a new disc from the omni-fascinating
vocalist Maggie Nicols, along with Janis Joplin my favourite singer as
it happens. Which Way Did He Co? captures Maggie in Glasgow with the
city's eponymous Improvisers Orchestra. The orchestra evolved out of
Evan Parker's visit in 2002, although their rich vocabulary of gestures
suggest a much longer lineage. "Food" has a tinge of 1960s Fire Music,
while "Improvisation with Maggie No 6" cuts to essence of Nicol's art as
a single intoned word - passion - provokes a complex exchange. Her
trademark streams- of- conscious ness, part confessional and always
profoundly creative, sound magnificent in this extended context - a
lonesome cry against the herd.
Phillip Clark
Jazz Review April/May 2006
THE WIRE
JAN 2006
GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA/MAGGIE NICOLS
WHICH WAY DID HE GO?
FMR CD
BY BRIAN MORTON
25 years ago, someone wrote about "La voix quotidian de Maggie Nicols".
as perfect a description of her close-head chatter and glumly cheerful
observation of human frailty. She comes on like a tricoteuse, weaving a
pain-and-purl of pure vocal sound as the heads roll; or she can reach
for pitches and trills that put her right in there with the horns, and
in a much less mannered way than the average Improv vocalist.
Since Evan Parker's collaboration with the GIO during 2002's Free
RadiCCAIs at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow. Scotland's
coalition of improvisers, pop mavericks and renegade classical players
have worked with musicians as various as Harry Beckett, Barry Guy,
George Lewis, Walter Prati, Keith Rowe. Gunter 'Baby' Sommer and Keith
Ttppett. and each time brokered something vivid and alert to potential.
This may have the happiest and more fruitful association of the run so
far.
Nicols begins with head-shaking mutters and sotto voce comments to the
floor, but she has agenda to address, not least self-definition and the
dangers of letting doubt damp the creative spark. The orchestra respond
in kind, with restless ripples of sound and a few probing initiatives.
50 minutes later, she's chanting passion, passion, passion, passionate,
passionately, compassion", a perfect verbal echo of the ensemble's
trajectory. Executing" lovely twists and turns" and speaking in
mysterious tongues, she ushers the music into the final phase of what's
billed as "Improvisation With Maggie, No 6". In between are three
slightly shorter pieces. "January Improvisation No 5" goes back to
uneasy strings - percussion, damped guitar, maybe strings - before it
too opens up into the big-hearted rammy that usually defines a GIO
performance. "Food" has more of a written feel, or at least some
predetermined shape and dynamic, and in some respects it's the least
successful thing on the record. It isn't clear who leads "January
Conduction No 1", but it was presumably Nicols, who had led the
preceding workshops and who is a genius den-mother. It's a fantastically
rich piece and repays detailed attention. She may have been born in
Edinburgh, where they speak different, but Maggie Nicols is as gallus as
they come and easily smart enough to stand her endlessly impressive
ground with these wily Weegies.
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
Munich and Glasgow
FMRCD139-i0204 (2003)
The GIO apparently started life during a workshop with Evan Parker so, fittingly, he is credited as ‘guest’ on this CD. He is not a prominent soloist but an integrated voice on the tracks that were recorded in Munich. So it isn’t meant as a showcase for him but there is plenty of interesting activity to tempt anyone inclined towards large improvising groups.
This weighty ensemble tackles free improvisation without descending into a mess of voices struggling to be heard in a free for all, which is no mean feat. There are raucous passages but they are balanced by moments that are luminous, delicate even, as on ‘Dissenting’. Here massed ranks of flutes, saxes and cello construct waves of shifting sound that swell and dissolve. Occasionally a flute will rise out of the weave or a splash of percussion will underpin it but this is mostly a collective effort echoing sounds made by Keith Tippett’s Ark. These sonorities are refreshingly arresting.
On ‘Das Grosse Spiel’ they set up a lurching sort of swing, propelled by the double bass, before things break down into a series of interludes including clarinet, flute and percussion, a manic ‘blow’ for the whole ensemble and some curious plucked guitar and bass. Despite the involvement of so many it manages to retain some sense of space and light, revealing a range of influences even if that makes it sound a bit fragmentary.
Both of those tracks are credited to one composer each and I assume the others are spontaneous collective compositions since no names are attached. On ‘Right’, the opener, Parker is given an opportunity to flex his considerable muscle and unleash that trademark sound, ululating and sounding like no one else can. Gradually, other members join in on what is a confident and purposeful piece of improvisation which displays moments of precise and sensitive interaction from guitar and percussion among other instruments.
They conclude with ‘Free Munich Epilogue’ another example of surprisingly delicate group work, foregrounding sax but with the piano gently picking out notes alongside the restrained use of percussion. It is only three and a half minutes long but exemplifies how the controlled shaping of diverse elements can result in attractive free music that will, hopefully, tempt new listeners as well as pleasing the converted.
Reviewed by Paul Donnelly
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (with Maggie Nichols)
Which Way Did He Go?
FMRCD158-iO505 * * *
From the eerily sublime to the serially atonal, the GIO are developing
into one of the most assured improvising big bands. There's a flavour
and feel to these five performances that's already unique to the
orchestra drawn as it is from some of Scotland's finest jazz and
classical performers. This collaboration with Maggie Nichols is as line
as fine as last year's with Evan Parker. If anything her wry commentary
on the opening 'Improv with Maggie No- 1 ' and her "speaking in tongues"
vocal on 'Food' suggest a match made in heaven. The colours that the
band achieves owe much to the atypical instrumentation. The emphasis on
reeds, strings and percussion with limited brass creates a wistful
atmosphere bordering at times on nostalgia but at others strangely
claustrophobic. 'January Conduction No. 1' is perhaps the most exciting
piece here, creating a curious series of parodies of jazz styles yet
remaining true in spirit to the virtues of free improv and the
principles of conduction as a method. The album closes with 'Improv with
Maggie No. 6.' a bizarrely operatic offering with Nichols on fine form
spouting what sounds like a series of oaths and curses of truly
Glaswegian origin.
Duncan Heining
Scotsman October 12th 2005
JAZZ
GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA: WHICH WAY DID HE GO? ****
FMR, £11.99
THE GLASGOW Improvisers Orchestra's second recording draws on their collaboration with the great improvising vocalist Maggie Nichols in Glasgow in 2004-5. Nicols's freeform and semi-spoken vocalisations operate very much as part of the ensemble texture. Glasgow Improviser's Orchestra's 20-strong line-up offers a very wide range of instrumental timbres and sonorities, allowing the musicians plenty of scope for imaginative play as well as the occasional sonic log-jam. Uncompromising stuff, and probably one for listeners already converted to the free improvisation aesthetic.
Kenny Mathieson
