vorgarten
über ihre new york zeit schrieb sie ja auch noch, dass sie da immer in einem haus zu besuch war, in dem corea, holland und liebman auf verschiedenen etagen wohnten. war vielleicht so ne art weißes arkestra…
tatsaechlich les ich gerade noch ein bisschen weiter, hier, faszinierendes Dokument, Unterricht bei Lennie Tristano, Praktikum bei Charles Lloyd, Pete LaRoca… und dann die Sache mit dem Loft… tatsaechlich wollten sie eine weisse AACM werden… und Leroy Jenkins hat ihnen direkt erklaert, dass sowas nicht funktioniert, wenn man nicht schwarz ist…
“There’s organizations, the Chicago AACM,” and there was something in St. Louis, that Oliver Lake thing, right? And Julius [Hemphill]. I was getting to – we were playing the loft for ourselves. Hundreds of hours of tapes. We’re not playing for people, because jazz in ’69 is at the lowest point it had ever been, at least up to that time. Rock-and-roll was completely ascendant. I said, we got to do something. Why don’t we organize? Go out, play in churches. Do something. We got to play for people. We’re just playing for ourselves. It’s not right. Forget about making a living, because everybody was driving a taxi, or a bartender, or whatever. We got to do something to figure this out. He said, “They did organizations” blah blah blah. Moses wasn’t quite the organizing kind of guy, but I am. I said, let’s have a meeting.
We had a meeting, and we invited Leroy Jenkins, who was the St. Louis guy, and Anthony, who was the Chicago guy – Braxton – to come and talk to us. I’m talking 20 guys sitting on the floor of my loft. Bob Berg, Michael [Brecker], Randy [Brecker], Chick, Dave, Lenny White, some guys who disappeared since then. Richie Beirach, Frank Tusa, those guys. I remember, because Leroy came up, and he basically said, “If you don’t have a cause” – you know, since you’re not black or something. It was kind of an intim- – “if you don’t have a cause, raison d’être, there’s no reason to organize,” for community and all that stuff. Kind of left us like, why did he come here and talk? Then Anthony came up at 10 o’clock at night, and he was peace and love. He was like, “Oh yeah, it’s beautiful. I think it’s beautiful.” So that night, we talked, and we came up with a name. Bob Berg came up with the name, Free Life Communication. Somebody had a friend who was a lawyer. Next thing I know, we’re a 501c. Next thing I know we’re up for the New York State Council of the Arts grant and got $5,000. Next thing I know we’re in the Space for Innovative Development on West 36th Street, a renovated church that the Rubin Foundation, who then supported the National Symphony in Washington – that’s all I know about them – they came to my loft to hear us play, so we could get in. Nikolais Ballet, Murray Louis Dance Company, Joe Chaikin Video Theater or whatever it was called at that time, and Free Life Communication on a 2,000-foot square, beautiful, pristine space. We became the resident music group of this place. So we were a big deal for a couple of years, 300 concerts the first year, all free jazz.
(das letzte fettgedruckte illustriert ein bisschen, dass eine weisse AACM anders funktioniert als eine schwarze)
Houben & Son – 7/7
ich bleibe in der Familie Pelzer, Michelines Cousin der Saxophonist Steve Houben in seiner ersten gemeinsamen Aufnahme mit seinem Sohn dem Trompeter Greg Houben (der unten im Bild genauso aussieht wie sein Vater frueher, etwa hier auf dem Backcover)… ein etwas nostalgisches aber sehr huebsches Fest auf das Handwerk, das in der Familie nun schon in der dritten Generation ausgeuebt wird…
--
.