Showing posts with label francois tusques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label francois tusques. Show all posts

10 August 2014

FRANÇOIS TUSQUES - LE NOUVEAU JAZZ (MOULOUDJI, 1967)











































an update of an early post

hello all,
this time, once again courtesy of 'boromir' another incredibly super rare album.
on the legendary french mouloujdi label.
francois tusques was one of he european pioneers of the genre, who made the transition from a more conventional jazz language sometime in the early 60's.
here is an article from the incredibly useful all about jazz site.
Francois Tusques et le Nouveau Jazz Francais
Published: January 10, 2006

By Clifford Allen
It is somewhat ironic that, as much as European jazz and free improvisation are nestled squarely within the canon of contemporary music—one has to look only at the worldwide recognition of figures like Germany’s Peter Brötzmann, England’s Evan Parker, or Holland’s Misha Mengelberg and their respective integral scenes—the country with the closest ties to vanguard American jazz in the ‘60s has been almost wholly left out of the picture. France has produced several world-renowned improvisers (for example, clarinetists Michel Portal and Louis Sclavis are among the instrument’s greatest proponents), but the architects of France’s ‘new thing’ have been summarily left by the wayside over the course of the music’s history. Pianist and composer François Tusques, while almost unknown outside his native France, is certainly among the rare few in European jazz, not only as a crucial figure in the development of the music in his sector of the continent, but so crucial that he was able to record the first true French free jazz record (Free Jazz, reissued by In Situ)—a claim which, Stateside, is not even Ornette Coleman’s.
Born in 1938 in Paris, Tusques migrated with his family to rural Brittany shortly thereafter, though as his father was a crucial figure in the French Resistance, François and his family moved around quite a bit during and after the War, eventually spending two years in Afghanistan and another two in Dakar before returning to France. As the potential for danger at being ‘outed’ as a member the Resistance was so high, Tusques did not attend any French schools at the time, for fear that he would accidentally divulge his father’s secret to his peers.

This secretiveness, on top of the fact that his family was so mobile, contributed to a difficult childhood, and despite the fact that his mother was an opera singer, poverty and circumstance kept Tusques from beginning musical training until he was eighteen, when he began to study the piano. “I had only one week of lessons; after that, I was on my own—you could say an ‘autodidact.’ I learned to play mostly by ear, especially from the drummers.”

Tusques quickly took to jazz—his worldliness certainly offering exposure to sounds that he would not have heard otherwise during the War—and counts among his early favorites Bud Powell and Rene Urtreger, not to mention subsequent affinities for Cecil Taylor (“but I am not a technical pianist…” says Tusques), Mal Waldron, Monk and Jaki Byard. At the start of the 60s, there was a significant scene of American expatriate improvisers in Paris—Bud, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Clarke, and traditionalists like Bechet—and a handful of young French players ready and willing to sit in, like saxophonist Barney Wilen and bassist Pierre Michelot. Certainly, as in England and elsewhere in Europe, French jazz of this nascent period was almost entirely beholden to the American post-bop model, and quite a few players who could stand alongside their American peers and run the changes.

Nevertheless, there was also a coterie of French improvisers for whom American-derived bebop was not the end, if even the means. Composer, arranger and sometime pianist Jef Gilson (who eventually began the famed Palm Records) was one of the ringleaders of the Parisian new jazz scene, mentoring young players like trumpeter Bernard Vitet, tenorman Jean-Louis Chautemps, drummer Charles Saudrais, bassist Beb Guerin and other soon-to-be leading lights. Tusques, though, was the only pianist at the time in Paris willing to extend those steps into the demanding compositional sound-world of ‘free jazz,’ and those who saw a continuous upward- and outward-mobility with this music looked to Tusques as a fulcrum.
By 1965, Vitet, Chautemps, Saudrais, and Portal (then primarily a classical clarinetist) had asked Tusques to compose a number of loose springboard-pieces to work on as a group, which led to the recording of Free Jazz for poet Marcel Moloudji’s tiny Moloudji label. In company with German vibraphonist-reedman Gunter Hampel’s Heartplants (Saba, 1965) and trumpeter Manfred Schoof’s Voices (CBS, 1966), Free Jazz is among the very earliest documents of a wholly European improvised music, one which springs more greatly from regional influences than those from across the Atlantic.

Free Jazz was followed in 1967 by Le Nouveau Jazz (Moloudji), which joined Tusques with Wilen in the saxophonist’s first recorded entrée into free playing (he would continue somewhat in this vein over the next several years), backed by Guerin and itinerant Italian drummer Aldo Romano, a fixture in Steve Lacy and Don Cherry’s ensembles of the period. Both Moloudji recordings are among the rarest documents of European jazz and were limited to a pressing of only 200 copies apiece—nevertheless, it was Tusques’ wherewithal that led to the first recorded examples of avant-garde French jazz.

By the mid- to late-60s in France, improvisation took on a political edge not dissimilar to that which it had in the States. France’s involvement in Vietnam at the start of the decade, not to mention governmental maltreatment across class lines of both workers and liberalist academics at the university level, led to the revolts of May 1968 and subsequent unrest, and the New Left found sympathetic ears among the jazz vanguard. Expatriate African-American and African artists, their struggle against racial oppression viewed by the Left with a similar lens to the proletarian struggle, led to a period of broader acceptance of free jazz in the liberal French public.

Tusques, though now looking at this period as “a reflection of the attitudes and ideas of the time,” was nevertheless one of the most notoriously political of the new French jazzmen—titles for his compositions like “L’Imperialisme est un Tigre un Papier,” “Les Forces Progressistes,” “Les Forces Reactionnaires,” and Black Panther-themed works like “Portrait of Erika Huggins,” “Right On!” and “Power to the People” belie a decidedly anti-establishment sensibility. The second volume of his Piano Dazibao series on Futura featured a cover with drawings of Mao, Lenin, and Arthur Ashe in addition to Tusques; the back of the third volume of the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra consists of drawings of the musicians interspersed with Chinese field workers.

Even if these concerns were “of the time” and not something Tusques feels a reflection of his current work, his affinity for a resurging interest in the Vienna School (Webern, Berg, Schoenberg) of composers belies a continuing political sensibility—“they were fighting fascism with their music, much as [improvisers] and artists do today.”

The first ripples of American free players began to show up on the Parisian scene in 1968, primarily due to an extreme paucity of gigs in New York and unwillingness on the part of major record companies to seriously document the music. Drummer Sunny Murray, late of the groups of Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor, was one of the first to make his home in Paris (though saxophonists Marion Brown and Steve Lacy were making a stand as well), and that year formed his Acoustical Swing Unit with both French and visiting free players. Prophetically, its first European incarnation included Tusques, Guerin, Vitet, Portal, Jamaican tenorman Ken Terroade (previously based in London), itinerant West Indian trumpeter Ambrose Jackson, and later added expatriate Americans Alan Silva (cello), Frank Wright, Byard Lancaster, and Arthur Jones (saxophones) and Earl Freeman (bass). Tusques, with his balance of insistent left hand and pointillistic right, helped to reign in the first two official Swing Unit recording dates, two of his three with Murray. These include the eponymous 1968 ORTF concert recording released by Shandar (Sunny Murray) and its companion Big Chief (Pathé, 1969).

By 1969, as a result of offers from French labels like BYG, Musidisc-America and Pathé, a significant number of American free jazzmen had arrived in Paris for gigs and recording contracts; Tusques and his compatriots therefore had the opportunity to work with figures like Anthony Braxton, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry and trumpeter/trombonist Clifford Thornton. These latter two were of particular importance in Tusques’ development, for as a particularly good ear-learner he fit in perfectly with Cherry’s process-based, ongoing and ear-taught approach to learning the seemingly unending and all-encompassing “Togetherness” suite. Tusques was a frequent collaborator, even assisting Cherry with some of the piano parts on the famed Mu recordings (BYG, 1969)—a series of duets with drummer Ed Blackwell. He also joined up with Thornton, resulting in what might be the valve trombonist’s strongest recording, The Panther and the Lash (America, 1970), with Guerin and drummer Noel McGhie.

It didn’t take long, however, for a significant number of gigs to dry up as the French musicians’ unions began to frown on the large number of perpetually-visiting Americans in Paris. Some, like Murray and Silva, were able to stay on, however, and it was with those two in mind that Tusques assembled his third date as a leader, Intercommunal Music, for Shandar in 1971.

Originally planned as a quartet date for piano, cello, drums and the bass of Beb Guerin, on which a number of Tusques originals would be investigated, kismet and ‘snafu’ turned it into something quite different. “I booked several hours of studio time in advance, Beb and I waited and waited for hours and we were getting very nervous because Sunny didn’t arrive. Finally, there was less than an hour of studio time left, and here come Sunny and Alan with four friends saying ‘OK, here we are, let’s go!’ We only had 37 minutes left, and I couldn’t even teach them the tunes, so what you hear on the record is exactly what happened in the studio with that time.”

What looks like one of the heaviest line-ups of free jazzmen one could conceive of—Murray, Silva, Tusques, Guerin, trumpeter Al Shorter, alto saxophonist Steve Potts (who would later join the Steve Lacy quintet), bassist Bob Reid (of multinational improvising quintet Emergency) and percussionist Louis Armfield—was, in fact, completely unexpected. An insistent, driving and minimal theme is voiced by the ensemble, leading into one of the most memorable ‘free’ alto solos these ears have heard, Tusques alternating between rhythmic repetition, roiling bass soundmasses and anthemic Maoist folk melodies, the unrehearsed group surprisingly empathetic to Tusques’ drive and whims.

Yet Tusques increasingly began to find free improvisation a musical “dead end” and found it necessary to search for other, more integrated approaches to improvisation. In addition to playing and recording a number of solo piano expositions (released to great acclaim on the Futura and Le Chant du Monde labels), Tusques formed the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra in the early ‘70s, a meeting of French and African musicians that would yield to a “popular appeal,” something that could get both social and artistic concerns out to a number of music listeners of all stripes.

“The name comes from these things: Intercommunal, like French and Africa together; Dance, so people can feel the music; and Free, because it was a free approach to traditional music of the world.” The group included a number of African percussionists, like Sam Ateba, Cheikh Fall and Guem, as well as the great alto saxophonist from Guinea, Jo Maka; French jazzmen like trumpeter Michel Marre; German trombonist Adolf Winkler (“he could play everything—one minute J.J. Johnson, the next minute Tricky Sam Nanton!”) and Spanish orator Carlos Andreu (“he was a revolutionary poet; he would get up and pick random passages from Leftist texts, improvising upon them in concert”).

African and Latin American folk themes yield to lengthy improvisational passages filled with more ebullience than severity in this context—there are even pieces that successfully hedge dub as much as they do Breton music or kwela. The orchestra lasted throughout the rest of the decade in various guises and on into the 1980s, recording nearly ten albums for vanguard French labels including Le Temps de Cerises and Vendemiare (a subsidiary of Palm), before eventually disbanding.

Since the mid-80s, Tusques has co-led a trio with Noel McGhie and Paris bass clarinet wizard Denis Colin, in some ways an heir apparent to the altars of Portal and Sclavis, albeit with an entirely bop-based sensibility that dips into the same spring as Dolphy. This trio recorded Tusques’ Blues Suite for Transes Europeenes in 1998, and it remains his most regular working group (Tusques picks his gigs with the utmost care, so this group might not work as much as followers of his music would like).

Tusques, in collaboration with his partner, actress/vocalist Isabel Juanpera, and members of the Parisian improvisers’ community like Colin and Vitet, has previously expanded upon the “Blues Suite” in works like Blue Phédre (Axolotl, 1996) and Le Jardin des Délices (In Situ, 1992), adding an operatic (and quite possibly cinematic) scale to his already colorful small-group music.

In what might seem a departure, one of Tusques' major projects is in collaboration with architect and visual artist Jean-Max Albert, in which Monk’s compositions are investigated visually. Numbers are applied to thematic fragments, and each number has a corresponding shape—these become surreal diagrams that retain perfectly the gravity and whimsy, the yin and yang of Monk’s music, at times like a painting of Mondrian, at times like a Miró. It his hoped that a concert version of this work can be performed, with Tusques performing the pieces surrounded onstage by the visual images. Such a multifaceted view of Monk is, in many ways, a perfect analogue for the music of François Tusques: an assemblage of insular phrases yields a colorful and multi-directional oeuvre, a never-ending film of freedom, culture, and social engagement. Intercommunal, indeed.

Thanks to François, Jean Rochard and Sarah Remke of the Minnesota sur Seine Festival, and Guy Kopelowicz for making this article possible.
Related Article Minnesota Sur Seine 2005: Intercommunal Music on the Mississippi
Recommended Listening
François Tusques, Blues Suite (Transes Europeens, 1998)François Tusques, Blue Phedre (Axolotl, 1996)
François Tusques, Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra (Vendemiaire, 1976-1978)François Tusques, Intercommunal Music (Shandar, 1971)Clifford Thornton, The Panther and the Lash (America, 1970)Sunny Murray, Sunny Murray (Shandar, 1968)François Tusques, Free Jazz 1965 (Moloudji/In Situ, 1965)

PLEASE BUY MORE FRANCOIS TUSQUES
more info and some records can be bought from futura/marge(another legendary lable)

or Improvising Beings
here http://www.improvising-beings.com/





Nouveau Jazz (Columbia, Mouloudji, 1970) FLAC



6 January 2014

FRANÇOIS TUSQUES "INTERCOMMUNAL MUSIC" (Shandar lp sp 10 01) 1971, flac


pierre brings us another inspired , rare shandar release.
francois tusques intercommunal music from 1971.
pierre says
'Know that this record is a good one ! One of my favourite of this period where the French musicians played and recorded with the Americans in Paris. And for those who understand French, don't forget to take a look at the song titles.'

Best
Pierre
those who prefer mp3 may want to visit our friend sunmyth at the brewing luminous blog.
its in the links under t not b
cheers


François Tusques, piano, guitar, maracas
Alan Shorter, trumpet
Steve Potts, alto saxophone
Alan Silva, cello
Beb Guerin, bass
Bob Reid, bass
Sunny Murray, drums
Louis Armfield, percussion


     Intercommunal Music (24:40)
A1. Intercommunal Music     08:00    
A2. Les Forces Progressistes     10:10    
B1. Les Forces Réactionnaires     03:00    
B2. La Bourgeoisie Périra Noyée Dans Les Eaux Glacées Du Calcul Égoïste 03:30
   
      Intercommunal Music! (6:00)
B3. L'Impérialisme Est Un Tigre En Papier 06:00
   
      Portrait D'Erika Huggins (8:04)
B4.         Untitled     00:44    
B5.         Untitled     07:20

Recorded May 11, 1971 in Paris.

SHANDAR SR 10010

Note:
Track 1 (18:20) is A1 + A2;
Track 2 (12:36) is B1, B2 +  B3;
Track 3 (8:31) is B4 + B5.

19 February 2013

FRANÇOIS TUSQUES / SERGE UTGÉ-ROYO – ÇA BRANLE DANS LA MANCHE (LE TEMPS DES CERISES, 1975)



A venerable-looking line-up for this LP




Montéhus


Dupont


Clement




Krier


Here's a small thank you for Kinabalu's fantastic series of posts of the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra. This is François Tusques in a piano-vocal duo with Catalan singer, Serge Utgé-Royo, performing songs and music in evocation of the Paris Commune. Like some of the IFDMO LPs, this was also released on Le Temps Des Cerises. The label name derived from the famous song by Jean-Baptiste Clément and Antoine Renard, dedicated to the fallen in the overthrow of the Commune during the Semaine Sanglante. The  other pictured artists originally wrote, adapted or performed the music in the solo piano suite. 


A1.  Sur Le Temps Des Cerises
A2.  Histoire Du Mouvement Ouvrier
- Elle N’Est Pas Morte
- Les Canuts
- La Semaine Sanglante
- La Butte Rouge
- Le Temps Des Cerises
A3.  Sur La Commune – Suivi De “La Canaille”

B1.  Tout Le Sang Du Monde
B2.  Nous Gagnerons Ensemble Si Vous Les Soutenez
B3.  Chanson De La Néogravure
B4.  La Valse De Darboy




François Tusques, piano, vocals

Serge Utgé-Royo, vocals


Recorded on 17 November 1975.

Le Temps Des Cerises – 005.

Vinyl Rip

7 February 2012

Francois Tusques - Le Musichien



Regular followers will probably know of my abiding love for L'Intercommunal. Over the last few years I've posted all four volumes of Intercommunal including the homage to Jo Maka. Last year I managed to locate "Apres la Maree Noire" which added two bombarde players from Bretagne and this year, I managed to find what must be vol. 6 from the early 80s. I don't think there were more Intercommunal coming after this one.

Here we have two long slabs, covering a full side each, not unlike African records of the time. Lay down a riff and a solid groove underneath, put some vocals and horns on top and keep the show going for as long as there is any breath left. On this, we have some of the crew from the early days, Catalan vocalist Carlos Andreu, the two bombarde players, regular jazz stalwarts Bernard Vitet and Jean-Jacques Avenel and Tusques and the rhythm section keeping things moving briskly along. Not a very uptight set, this one, definitely one for the Mediterranean and further south. Somehow the vibe got me thinking of Rascals' "Peaceful World" which also lasted a full side - a very mellow world at that.

Ze factoids:

Francois Tusques intercommunal free dance music orchestra
Edizione Corsica CP 33 135

A side

"Le Musichien"

Recorded at 28, rue Dinois 19 June 1981

Carlos Andreu - vocals
Ramadolf - trombone and bells
Yegba Likoba - soprano sax
Sylvain Kassap - tenor sax
Jean-Jacques Avenel - double bass
Kilikus - percussion
Francois Tusques - piano

B - side

"les Amis d'Afrique"

Recorded in Rennes 10 July 1982

Carlos Andreu - vocals
Bernard Vitet - trumpet
Sylvain Kassap - trombone
Daniele Dumas - soprano sax
Jean-Louis Le Vallegant - bombarde
Phillippe Le Strat - bombarde
Tanguy Le Dore - bass
Sam Ateba - congas
Kilikus - congas
Francois Tusques - piano

We just might have a little more Tusques coming up ...

14 February 2011

Francois Tusques - Sonneurs Traditionnels - Intercommunal Free Dance Music Ochestra - Après la marée noire. Vers une musique bretonne nouvelle




I mnetioned in my last post that there is a fifth Intercommunal record and this is it. This one is different from the others in that it is geographically concentrated to Bretagne in France which is not unrelated to the fact that Tusques grew up there. The idea is to take the traditional Kan Ha Diskan folk music of the Scrignac-Carhaix region of Bretagne, normally sung in a call and response manner and designed to fit with folk dances. Here it is played on the bombarde, a woodwind instrument which can be likened to an oboe, and the binou kozh which translates as an ancient bagipe. The normal procedure is for the bombarde to call and the binou kozh to respond. Players are known as soners (in Breton) and sonneurs (in French). The sonneurs set the basic rhythmic and melodic parameters, and the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra weaves jazzy-improvisational patterns over and above, drawing on the variegated experience of the Mediterranean countries and the African continent. What comes out of it is hybridisation of folk and jazz, putting the "nouvelle" into tradition, both musically and lyrically. Behind the music, there is as always a political intent which can be gleaned from the lyrics printed inside the cover, reproduced in Catalan, Breton and French.

Basic facts:

Francois Tusques - Sonneurs Traditionnels - Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra - Après La Marée Noire. Vers une Musique Bretonne Nouvelle

(Le Chant du Monde LDX 74703) 1979

01_La rencontre
02_Biniou koz free blues valse
03_Blues gavotte
04_Les racines de la montagne
05_La marèe noire
06_Le cheval
07_Marche des pollués

Jean-Louis Le Vallegant - bombarde
Gaby Kerdoncuff - bombarde
Philippe Lestrat - bombarde and biniou koz
Tanguy Ledoré - electric bass
Ramadolf - trombone
Michel Marre - trumpet, alto sax
Samuel Ateba - congas and bongos
Carlos Andreou - vocals
Jo Maka - soprano sax
Kilikus - darbuka

Recorded at Studio Resonances
Music by Francois Tusques except "Le cheval", coauthored with Carlos Andreou.

I'm going to stick to the folky jazz/jazzy folk-theme for a little while, so stay tuned!

20 January 2011

Francois Tusques - L'Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra vol.3




Continuing with the series of L'Intercommunal records, we have now come to vol.3, the remaining one of the four records under that moniker. There is actually a fifth, but we will get to that in due course. This is possibly the most diverse of the four and strongly influenced by the contributions of Spanish vocalist Carlos Andreou. As usual, the emphasis is on urgent political issues of the day, and several of the tracks address political developments in Latin America and on the Iberian peninsula. The crew is more or less the same as on the other L'Intercommunal records; all pieces are recorded live in various locations in France. The music is rough and ready, no studio polish or retakes; this is decidedly not disco or designed for meditative listening on high-graded stereo equipment, but field recordings of gigs in provincial France, far away from the capital. Very much determined by the aspirations of getting closer to les travailleurs and small-town people. Voila!

Francois Tusques - L'Intercommunal Free Music Dance orchestra vol.3
(Vendémiaire VDES 036-6)

Side 1

Blues pour Miguel Enriques/Chant pour L'Amerique Latine (F.Tusques, C. Andreou) J. Maka (alto sax), M. Marre (tp), A. Winkler (tb), S.Ateba & Kiliokus (perc), F. Tusques (piano), C. Andreou (vocals). "Les Marins" (1977)

Piano Dazibao (F. Tusques) piano solo, Pradès de lez "Le Moulin (1976)

Vet Aqui Que Tenen Por/Abrisme Galanica (C.Andreou). F. Tusques (piano), C.Andrreou (vocals), M. Marre and J. Mereu (tp), C. Marre (tuba), T. Ledore (electric bass), Philippe (biniou boz), Jean-Louis (bombarde), Kilikus & S.Ateba (percussion). Le Havre in June 1978

Side 2

L'Heure est la Lutte (F. Tusques) F. Tusques (piano), J. Maka (alto sax), A. Winkler (tb), M. Marre and J. Mereu (tp), Kilikus, A.Mako, C. Marre and Francine (percussion). Le Moulin de Prades le lez 1976

Mar Jo Cantar No Fabia (C. Andreou) Mazir (F. Tusques). F. Tusques (piano), M. Marre (tp), C. Andreou (vocals), Kilikus & S. Ateba (darbuka + congas), T.Ledore (electric bass). La Maison de la Culture du Havre in 1978.

Some beautiful expressive trumpet playing by Michel Marre on the penultimate track!

More L'Intercommunal coming up!

2 January 2011

Francois Tusques - Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra vol.2



Some may recall that I posted a while ago vols. 1 and 4 of the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra. This was a project of Francois Tusques to go "popular" - to connect with workers and immigrants, to take the music to the people, very much in line with the ethos of les gauchistes at the time. While Tusques had been at the forefront in introducing the concept of free jazz to French and European audiences from the mid-60s onwards, including the Intercommunal album on Shandar we posted here earlier, the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra was a step in a new direction, in the direction of accessibility and connectedness. This meant engaging in current political topics, domestically and abroad. Whether this made a dent in the larger scheme of things, is doubtful, but it remains a document of incorporating into jazz popular music from near and afar, with musical references to the Middle East and to Africa, a precursor of what was to be known as world music, though I hate that term.

This was the second release on the musician-run Le Temps des Cerises label, taking its name from a French song associated with the Paris Commune and thought to be dedicated to a nurse who was killed during the government strike-down of the commune. We posted the first earlier, but from a rerelease on the Vendemiaire label. The recording sounds as if it was done from the audience, the pressing is not too great and the music is ramshackle, but what the hell, we're not into polished aesthetics here. The music was recorded at Moulin de Prades-le-lez which is in Languedoc, not too far from Montpellier.

Basic facts:

Tracks:

Side 1

Un peuple qui en prime un autre ne peut pas etre un peuple libre (F. Tusques) (10:20) Michel Marre (baryton), Francois Tusques (piano), Jo Maka (soprano sax), Adolphe Winkler (trombone, maraccas), Guem (tam tam).

En souvenir de Cante Facelli (F. Tusques) (8:40) Jo Maka (soprano sax), F. Tusques (piano), Guem (tam tam), Adolphe Winkler (maraccas)


Side 2

Relaxation (A.Winkler) (11:05) A. Winkler (trombone), F. Tusques (piano), Guem (congas), Jo Maka (tambourin)

Chanson pour Pierre Overney (F. Tusques) (8:40) Francois Tusques (piano), Jo Maka (soprano sax), Adolphe Winkler (trombone)

Recorded in Prades-le-lez, Occitanie, 25-26 January 1974

(Le Temps des Cerises 02)

Michel Marre is listed as being on the first track, but I can't hear him. Listen out for the long, lucid solo by Jo Maka on the second piece. I'll have to seek out more from him. All in all, bit of a jolly down at the village hall or wherever it was. To be enjoyed!

13 January 2010

Francois Tusques Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra Vol.4 - Jo Maka



Francois Tusques Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra Vol.4 - Jo Maka
(Vendemiaire VD33124 Ad 37)

Hommage à Jo Maka

Following up the last post, here is vol.4 of the Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, led by pianist Francois Tusques. As with the former, this is an opportunity for Tusques to reflect the wider musical landscape beyond the Western horizon of jazz, though the root feeling is in jazz, as seen from their rendition of the Mingus classic "Fable of Faubus". On top of that, inspiration is from North Africa and all the way down the continent, from Latin America and the Caribbean and from French history with reminescences of the Paris commune. And at the end of the second track, there's a snip of a well-known tune which one unfortunately doesn't get to hear very often these days. I do think I hear touches of the South African Blue Notes on this record, though it may be wishful thinking on my part.

All in all, a very enjoyable record and if anyone knows of more, please say so in the comments, though these things are becoming hard to get. I will certainly keep an eye out for more.

Les facts:

1. Vive la commune (F.T.)
A. Winkler (tb), S.Kassap (tenor), F. Tusques (piano), J.J. Avenel (bass)
Recorded at Dunois 28 September 1981

2. Poses ton fardeau and remets la machine en route (F.T.)
A. Winkler (tb), Jo Maka and Sylvain Kassap (alto), Jacques Thollot (drums), Kilikus (darbuka), F.Tusques (piano)
Recorded at Dunois 29 October 1980

3. 7 rue des Precheurs (F.T.)
A. Winkler (tb), S. Kassap (tenor), B. Vitet (bugle), J.J. Avenel (bass), Kilikus, S.Atera and Carlos Andreou (percussion), F. Tusques (piano)
Recorded at Dunois 29 June 1981

4. Fable of Faubus (Charlie Mingus)
Same as on track 2 minus Kilikus

5. Mazir
A.Winkler (tb), Jo Maka (soprano), Michel Marre (tp), Sam Ateba and Kilikus (percussion), F.Tusques (piano)
Recorded at "Moulin" in Prades Le Lez in 1977

This disc is dedicated to Jo Maka (and do listen to the very fine solo on "Mazir).

8 January 2010

Francois Tusques - L'intercommunal free dance music orchestra - Volume 1




Here's some more Francois Tusques - though quite different from what we have posted before here. Both Free Jazz and Le Nouveau Jazz were early European excursions into the new thing, though firmly jazz-based. Tusques, moreover, guested on a couple of Sunny Murray's albums, a self-titled one and Big Chief and finally, was the leader of his own Intercommunal Music. All of these three were meeting points between American visitors, some of whom were eventually to settle down in Europe, and European players, mostly French. The last, intercommunal, album might hint at some sort of similarity with this posting, but in reality, this Intercommunal group is quite different.

This was a typical 70s brand of "tiersmondisme", a connecting up with musical idioms beyond jazz and beyond the North-American - European nexus, first and foremost African - Caribbean popular styles. This was a "world music" type fusion project, before there was a word for it and it gives an initial signal of what was to be a new musical direction for Tusques - a deliberate attempt to go popular and not to become semi-permanently anchored within a closeted avant-gardish framework. There are interesting parallels with Michel Portal here who would always leave a little space for his bandoneon. This is music for the feet and the body as much as for the head and listening to this, the musicians are having a ball and the audience is lapping it up. This is a live recording, what may be called an audience recording, so don't expect too much high fidelity. What it lacks in sonics, it compensates in atmospherics.

Basic facts:

1. On n'est pas chez les colonels.
2. Intercommunal blues
3. Nazir
4. Kan-ha-diskan we shall overcome
5. African rythm-n-ology

Francois Tusques - piano
Jo Maka - sax
Guem - percussion
Michel Marre - baryton horn
Adolphe winkler - trombone

Recorded at Moulin de Prades, Le Lez, on 28 May 1971.

This was out on a small French label, Vendemiaire (with the logo "Disques d'expression sociale") as Volume 1. I'm planning to post Volume 4 next, but if anyone has or knows anything about Vols. 2 and 3, I would definitely be interested in posting them here on this blog.

21 February 2008

Francois Tusques - Free Jazz




Continuing with the Francois Tusques postings and backing up a couple of years, this was recorded on 26 October 1965 at the Comedie de Champs Elysee in Paris and issued on the small Moloudji label the year after. The pic above is clipped from an Ebay auction and the disc ended up above my price range, to say the least. So we're settling for a cd reissue on the In Situ label from 1991 (at a considerably nicer price). I believe the cd is by and large out of print, though I imagine it's possible to pick up copies in France still. This came from Japan, btw.

This was at the birth of French free jazz and involved a number of musicians who were to put their distinct footprint on the scene in years to come. Francois Tusques has been partially documented here already and Michel Portal, Bernard Vitet and Bernard (Beb) Guerin were to play together in Michel Portal Unit in the 70s (we'll get to that in due course) and they were to play hosts and partners to many arriving from the other side of the Atlantic later on.

This is a very mature and cohesive outfit for a first record I find. I've no idea whether they had played toghether before or for how long, but it sounds like they know each other pretty well. The music veers from arranged to improvised passages in a very smooth manner and it's hard to know what is what. There are hardly any extended solo sections on this record, time signatures change rapidly, pieces of melody are picked up, tossed around and disappear again. Instruments intertwine throughout the entire record and everybody is on tiptoe and on the alert to what's going on around them. Decidedly "free", yet retaining melody, structure, rhythm, but never for too long before somebody comes up with another idea. Remarkable, innovatory! This was at the birth of European free jazz, yet of a different kind from that emerging on the west side of the Atlantic. But one can imagine someone like Dolphy fitting into this company (and maybe Joe Harriott, too).

Tracks:

1. Description automatique d'un paysage désolé 1
2. La tour Saint Jacques
3. Description automatique d'un paysage désolé 2
4. Souvenir de l'oiseau 1
5. Souvenir de l'oiseau 2
6. Souvenir de l'oiseau 3

The cd adds tracks 5 and 6 to the original lp version.

Line-up


Bernard Vitet - trumpet
Francois Jeanneau - saxophone and flute
Michel Portal - bass clarinet
Charles Saudrais - percussion
Bernard Guérin - bass
Francois Tusques - piano


Interesting piece of trivia - Colette Magny was artistic director for the initial release on Moloudji.

In coming posts, we shall get to the birth of the German free jazz scene as well (and some Scandinavian excursions), but later for that ...
Disregard the mp3s in the first comment - working mp3s here:

8 February 2008

Francois Tusques - Le Nouveau Jazz (flac)


An upgrade of this was requested by jazz-nekko. If an mp3 version is required, I'm sure someone will oblige through the comments.

Links
http://rapidshare.com/files/90133589/NouveauJazz_flac.part1.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/90147786/NouveauJazz_flac.part2.rar

4 February 2008

SUNNY MURRAY- Self Titled (SHANDAR, 1968)



pierre , brings us the little known selftitled sunny murray lp on shandar.
Sunny MurrayShandar 10.008 F rec Paris, Studio 104 de la Maison de la Radio O.R.T.F. 12/8/68

Ambrose Jackson-tp Sunny Murray-d Michel Portal-bcl,taragot Beb Guerin-b Francois Tusques-p Hart Leroy Bibbs-poem Bernard Vitet-tp Ken Terroade-ts
many thanks for sharing this and intercommunications .
see comments for links

7 July 2007

KENNETH TERROADE- LOVE REJOICE (BYG 1969)

'BOROMIR' SAID
"Kenneth Terroade - Love Rejoice Paris 1969..
Kenneth Terroade: tenor sax, flute
Ronnie Beer: alto, tenor sax, flute
Evan Chandley: bass clarinet, flute
Francois Tusques - piano
Beb Guerin: bass
Earl Freeman: bass
Claude Delcloo: drums

Like all BYG Actuel recordings, the sound quality is not brilliant, but I think it is a good example of the genre. I think this was Terroade's only outing as leader. Jamaican-born, he moved to London when he was fourteen. Internet references indicate that he played with Chris Magregor and cohorts, which probably explains Ronnie Beer's appearance on this album, as well as British artists like John Surman and Mike Osbourne. I've traced one album from this period, Friendship Next Of Kin, which I've seen for sale at 180 euros. He moved to France where he made recordings on BYG with the likes of Sunny Murray, Shepp, Dave Burrell etc. I've found no trace of him after the early 70s, so did he meet an early and untimely death ? Scans are attached

THANKS B, I DONT KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT TERROADE, apart from the fact that he appeared on a few albums, on byg, sunny murry's sunshine , and witches and devils, and "never give a sucker an even break"
and a record by mongezi feza which a friend of mine owns ,i cant remember what its called.
hes also on alan silva's lunar surface
, and the triple lp celestial communications orchestra.He's also on a few great rock albums, playing flute ..i think..
doctor john's- sun moon and herbs
and, daevid allen (from gong)'s bannana moon.
this has been available, sporadically
as a vinyl only "reissue"of dubious provenance on the abraxas lable.
apparently the owners of 'abraxas' have little respect for the original artists appearing on the discs and they get nothing, which is from what ive heard and read exactly what happened the first time round, yep thats right some of the jazz artists who made records for byg
claim they never even got paid.
In any case this, does seem pretty hard to obtain.

192kbs is pretty low fi, so if you want to enrich the owners of 'abraxas', who make very poorly pressed vinyl reissues, and dont pay any artist royalties, buy the album if you can find it!!!!!!!!!theres a beautiful photo taken by valerie wilmer of terroade in 1971 here
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/magnify.php?imageid=im00229

this has been ripped by boromir from his original vinyl, not the abraxas pressing
(i have half a dozen abraxas "reissues" as well as a couple of originals , the originals sound much more vivid, the abraxas pressings have inexplicable pressing faults, and in the case of my copy of jimmy lyons- other afternoons, actual pops and clicks even though the record was new when i bought it and is apparently unmarked, a tape of the same which i made 15 years ago sounds better than that pressing. issues of royalties and legitimacy aside, the music is not being done justice ,by these amateurish vinyl pressings.