Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday January 5th, 2011 with Bernard Stepien
Schlippenbach's Chamber Free Jazz

Chamber music and Jazz is seemingly a recent combination. Well, this all depends on opinions. For me, most of Cool Jazz of the '50s could qualify for this new fad of Chamber Jazz. A good starting point is to play cello like Esperanza Spalding and ensure that some überinvolved marketing manager doesn't stick around too much so that the music doesn't turn into sticky sirup. However, Chamber Free Jazz has been around for a while. First of all there are a number of Free Jazz cellist around to act as a starter. One of them is Tristan Honsiger, a well know member of the Dutch ICP orchestra. German Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach pushed the concept even further with his recent trio that not only includes cellist Tristan Hosinger but also a very classical music sounding Italian clarinetist Daniel d'Agaro. While d'Agaro is relatively new to the scene, both Schlippenbach and Honsinger are long established musicians that are known for their penchant for extremes, Schlippenbach for Free Jazz big bands (Globe Unity Orchestra) or trios with multi phonics expert Evan Parker and Honsinger for associations with Cecil Taylor. Friulian Sketches is a CD that features all of these extreme musicians in a contained but certainly atonal music. The music is mostly tender. But make no mistake, for Europeans, this is actually a marketing coup. Modern chamber music is a big thing in Europe. An advice: how about the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival bringing them over here in Ottawa?