Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday February 19th, 2014 with Bernard Stepien
Michael Moore: Chicoutimi

Michael Moore is an American saxophonist and clarinetist that settled in Amsterdam in 1978 and since then is systematically involved with the avant-garde scene there in all kinds of configurations but steadily with the famous Instant Composers Pool led by pianist Misha Mengelberg. Chicoutimi, his 1994 recording on clarinet only literally put him on the map and generated serious recognition. It is basically an homage to clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre and pianist Paul Bley and also to the Lee Konitz-Bill Evans duo both recorded in the early ‘60s. The presence of pianist Fred Hersch on this CD is probably the most intriguing since Hersch is mainly known otherwise to be a straight ahead Jazz pianist with some pigeon holing him in the Bill Evans zone. Here, Hersch plays free but with chords of unusual stacks of notes. Maybe this is what he means when he said “To me chords are not stacks of things: each note in a chord is a voice that wants to move somewhere”. This is 20 years old music. This CD trades heavily among Jazz collectors. Of course you won’t find it in your local CD store. This is why CKCU-FM is here after all…