Topic: Alvin Curran's Saucepan

[Mandryka]

Please let me know what you think about the man's art.

[Mandryka]

This is so sweet, so agreeable, so luscious that it surely can’t be any good for you.

[Mandryka]

Canti Illuminati I is a blatant and shameless Stimmung ripoff. Very good though!

[Old San Antone]

I have been listening to this recording from 2020 Inner Cities, performed by Gabriella Smart.



Morton Feldman seems to have been an influence.

[Iota]

Couldn't find any of the above on streaming so tried this:



Alvin Curran: On Hearing the Brooklyn Bridge sing in Yiddish


Haven't listened to anything like all of it, but liked it more than I was expecting to. I've haven't heard any experimental music that really chimed with me for a while, but this felt unusually easy to like, funny, charming, lyrical .. there are indeed many actual brief appearances of melody, but it's the whole that feels lyrical somehow. There seemed to be a human warmth lurking in the collage too.

I shall certainly be going back at some point to see if the positive feelings last. Thanks for the introduction.

[Mandryka]

I have been listening to this recording from 2020 Inner Cities, performed by Gabriella Smart.



Morton Feldman seems to have been an influence.

I prefer the tone and the tempos of Daan Vanderwalle.

[T. D.]

I've long thought of acquiring this set (Steve Lacy! Rzewski! George Lewis, Karl Berger, etc.) , but it's pricey...



This one also appeals to me, but will try to audition online (yippee, it's all on Youtube!):



I dig the latter and may purchase. But I'm approaching Curran's music as a big jazz piano listener, so deconstructing/reconstructing standards is of personal interest.

[Mandryka]

I've long thought of acquiring this set (Steve Lacy! Rzewski! George Lewis, Karl Berger, etc.) , but it's pricey...



This one also appeals to me, but will try to audition online (yippee, it's all on Youtube!):

What I feel about this one is that there are some fabulous nights on record there, especially in Amserdam, but whether this translates well to your living room . . . I'm not sure.

[Mandryka]

Animal Behaviour is like  a watered down version of Wishart’s Red Bird. Proof that Brits are more hardcore than yanks.

The other track, Why is this night different from other nights?, seems strange and not without charm.