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ought 1920s Dadaism to the present. With<br />
his latest FIMAV visit, Blonk reestablished<br />
himself as a virtuoso of “highly controlled<br />
absurdity.”<br />
While Saturday night’s double-header<br />
affirmed the expressive power of free-jazz,<br />
Friday night’s fare reveled in the intensity of<br />
rock and the avant garde noise persuasion. A<br />
collection of discrete artists joined together for<br />
an artful “wall/landscape painting of sound”<br />
noise summit featuring Japan’s Merzbow,<br />
France’s Richard Pinhas and Michigan trio<br />
Wolf Eyes. During the post-midnight slot, deft<br />
turntablist eRikm met the staunchly real-time/<br />
real-object percussionist and former Einstürzende<br />
Neubauten member FM Einheit, who rendered<br />
obscure objects, power tools and building<br />
materials into true, mind-bending musicality.<br />
Vocal projects certainly found their way<br />
into the FIMAV fabric elsewhere, as festival<br />
opener Koichi Makigami illustrated with his<br />
exotic, organically experimental Far East/<br />
Central Asian trio. During the closing program,<br />
“Comicoperando: A Tribute To The Music of<br />
Robert Wyatt,” vocalist Dagmar Krause,<br />
keyboardist-vocalist (and chip off the Carla<br />
Bley block) Karen Mantler and drummer<br />
Chris Cutler concocted a moodier take on<br />
art rock legend Wyatt’s venerable songbook.<br />
<br />
—Josef Woodard<br />
Vision Fest Brings<br />
Brötzmann, New<br />
Combos Into Sight<br />
The 16th annual Vision Festival was a<br />
festschrift for saxophonist Peter Brötzmann<br />
and some noteworthy new ensembles.<br />
On night four of the event, Brötzmann—<br />
joined by cornetist Joe McPhee and bassists<br />
William Parker and Eric Revis—bellowed<br />
discrete segmented phrases to an oversold<br />
Abrons Theater. Parker and Revis alternated<br />
between pizzicato and arco, imparting different<br />
textures to each improvisation. McPhee<br />
later transitioned to tenor saxophone to help<br />
Brötzmann close the first colloquy. The second<br />
half began with Brötzmann’s long quasi-subtone<br />
as Parker and Revis conjured countermelody.<br />
McPhee commenced an Aylerian fanfare,<br />
and Brötzmann spun off a deeply soulful solo.<br />
McPhee played the blues on cornet, Brötzmann<br />
riposted on an elongated soprano with clarinet<br />
epigrams, and the conversation ended.<br />
Brötzmann’s subsequent peformance with<br />
Chicago-based vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz<br />
was less about blend than the duo’s exchange<br />
of ideas. He opened with long tones as<br />
Adasiewicz elicited a harpish, chime-like<br />
sound from the vibes, transitioned to long washes<br />
with standard mallets and later channeled<br />
church bells using formidable four-mallet stick<br />
combinations. Brötzmann poured on the vibrato<br />
before launching into a rubato melody remniscent<br />
of the jazz standard “Body And Soul.” He’d<br />
conclude his appearance with a three-sax blowout<br />
alongside fellow reedists Ken Vandermark<br />
and Mars Williams.<br />
Peter Evans’ performance with electric<br />
bassist Tim Dahl and drummer Mike Pride<br />
showcased the trio’s amazing chops. Beginning<br />
with Evans’ opening fanfare over a grindcorethrash<br />
vamp, the flow fragmented into polished<br />
three-way textural improv. Evans uncorked Bill<br />
Jack Vartoogian/Front row photos<br />
Tomasz Stańko<br />
Dixon-like harmonics at tremendous velocity,<br />
manipulating sounds in real-time and deploying<br />
extended circular breathing.<br />
Trumpets were abundant during the previous<br />
evening’s program, a coproduction with the<br />
Festival Of New Trumpet Music (FONT)<br />
organization. The evening opened with<br />
Amir ElSaffar’s “With/Between,” spotlighting<br />
quarter-tone Iraqi modes drawn from the<br />
trumpeter’s late 2009 fieldwork in Azerbaijan.<br />
Vocalist Jen Shyu was precise while phrasing<br />
complex rhythms—“What You’re Saying”<br />
featured multiple meters. François Moutin<br />
constructed cogent basslines while drummer<br />
Tomas Fujiwara nailed the long forms on<br />
“Apertures Of Light.” Liberty Ellman contributed<br />
projected blues sensibility on fretless,<br />
nylon-string electric guitar. On the concluding<br />
“Fuzuli”—named for an Azerbaijani poet—<br />
ElSaffar sang the text before Shyu’s concluding<br />
voice solo.<br />
Trumpeter Tomasz Stańko’s new quartet<br />
with violinist Mark Feldman, pianist Sylvie<br />
Courvoisier and bassist Mark Helias interpreted<br />
a dynamic suite of seven tunes with the<br />
presence of a long-standing ensemble. Feldman<br />
was a perfect foil to Stańko while Courvoisier<br />
deployed low-end attack with a sense of spiky<br />
brilliance.<br />
—Ted Panken
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