The London Concert - Evan Parker and Derek Bailey
£
24
$
32
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Description
Recording from 1975 of Evan Parker on Tenor and Soprano saxophones with Derek Bailey on guitar. Parker plays soprano for the first half, tenor for the second. Bailey sticks predominantly to a two-speaker stereo guitar set up enhanced by his customary volume pedals. The exception arises in his solo section of the second half where he straps on a custom-built 19-string acoustic, a spindly contraption that sounds like a fork-tined zither.
Recording clarity remains quite clean and close for much of the duration with Bailey’s shimmering tonal icicles well-preserved alongside Parker’s striated lineaments. Bailey’s ability to shape sound collages that are at once brusque and spiny and yet oddly lyrical fits with his partners’ similarly penetrating temperament. Parker isn’t one to mince notes or tones either. His sharply suspirating soprano sorties draw blood just as easily as Bailey’s taloned plectrum. Tenor proves just as petulant. Parker voices percussive reed stutters and trills that match the unstable angularity of Bailey’s own fervently-percolating patterns.
Playing it straight or orthodox simply isn’t a viable option, though the Parker’s elongated tones toward the middle of the segment marked “Part I” hint at the outlines of parabolic melody. Bailey answers with ricocheting echoes that whir with the voltage of livewire electricity. The brittle fracas reaches an apex as the pair burrow into the figurative innards of their respective implements, Parker breathing acidic recycling gusts and Bailey abrading his strings and frets with hard-pecking gesticulations. Parker’s supreme level of embouchure control is often such that slaps to the forehead in awed disbelief are frequent. His “Second Half” solo salvo deploys with enough force to punch pneumatic holes in the ceiling tiles of Wigmore Hall and leaves the impression that attendees were brushing heavy layers of plaster dust off their pates by the end of the performance.
Sleeve slightly worn, vinyl in v.good conditionA lot of the albums listed here were second hand when I got them, but all are in reasonable condition and play without skips. I've noted where an LP has visible or audible marks on the vinyl in the listings, and can only really vouch for how well they play on my equipment. Nearly all of the LPs were purchased in the 80s and 90s when I collected improv. albums by scouring the record shops in London.
I'm not interested in making money from postage and packing, but would like to recoup the cost - the postage quoted in this listing is about right for single/double purchases, and there is a sliding scale in operation for multiple purchases which should be accurate for 2 items. If you are purchasing more than two, please check the postage with me (especially for non-UK bidders) and request an invoice before payment for multiple items - I will calculate the postage for your purchases and give any additional discount I can. If in doing so the postage works out to more than that listed on your invoice, I'll stick to the invoice amount.
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