Tony Hymas / Evan Parker [soprano sax]

[helluvagun]

I'm truly broadminded but this is not tasty!

Would like to know, as a comparison, what all of  you who like this listen to, apart from this! Seems to me that a lot of you can stand just about anything to be hip!

[lyigantius]

@helluvagun um, John Zorn does some things similar to this... Also, Peter Brotzman and Anthony Braxton (piano, Cecil Taylor..). There are hundreds of imporvising musicians at this level - alive or dead, those are just some of the "big" ones. Also, this is very close to a great deal of experimental 20th century classical music.

I don't think this has anything to do with being hip - no one knows who these musicians are! (unfortunately). Most jazz musicians don't even know who Evan Parker is :(.

[martinsjardijn]

This is the sound top for me...

[Lovesalluneed]

Truly great stuff - Love it! - it shakes up all the cells of my being and allows them to resettle in a new way, refreshed and reordered. I wish this ran to the complete performance here or/& that i had been in that room in 2006!

[sgt7]

I love this king of stuff. I think it gives artists the freedom to convey something which could not be conveyed inside traditional music structures: true art. It parallels with poetic right.

[heathdwatts]

Evan is awesome and so is this video.

[joejohnson043]

Just because there is a saxophone in it doesn't make it jazz. This is classical avante garde. (Classical has improvisation as well).

[retread01]

@joejohnson043 I'm being serious, what would be the difference between improvisation in Jazz and Classical avante garde?

[SopranoSaxBoss]

Pure Greatness love it !!!

[gwalkron]

The thing about ths sort of stuff is that the extended techniques that they use filter down to everyone else, eventually. Once upon a time, harmonics on sax were considered difficult & exotic: now, everyone does it as a matter of course.

[FLsaxman007]

haha i know sopranos are built to belt out those high notes but this is ridiculous! great job, i'll never be able to make my sax do that, i'll just stick to swing/funk =)

[gldmj55]

this is what a bad acid trip sounds like

[carbonbodyworker]

Whats the track called? lol

Hey listen,i play a bit of jazz bass myself so i know what its all about , but this vid would surely have people thinking how nuts us jazzers are!

Frank zappa did albums like this and he was a total genius!

Well done fellas!!

[Hansenshi]

WHAT THE HECK?!?! it sounds difficult, but it still is not very appealing.

[ingej32]

so true!

[plunderpunk]

To the folks saying how "bad" this is:

you very literally don't know what you are hearing or talking about. These are two accomplished musicians playing very difficult music. Whether or not your familiar with what they are doing seems to dictate the opinion you have of it. I can assure you that it's not "bad".

[ricardomono]

i'm sorry to disagree, but... difficult music is not the equivalent to good music. that is pure bullshit. beatles weren't difficult and they will always be great.

and being familiar (or not) with what these guys are doing, does not dictate anything. opinions are what they are, and must be respected. personally, i think that it is quite arrogant and elitistic to say "you say it's bad because you don't understand it". some like it, some dislike it, and it's perfect like that. cheers

[plunderpunk]

@ricardomono

you are saying take everything at face value and render a judgment on it. the people at my work who insist on keeping the pop music station on call the classical/jazz station i prefer "junk". are they correct? they seem to be illustrating your point beautifully. anybody can say anything and be just as correct as anyone else. wild.

[escagad]

very amazing all the best

[sreymffej]

At least you can dance to it...OK...nice dinner music with that special someone!

[gsco82]

While I can see the jazz influence in this piece, I don't particularily like it. It is too "free". I don't doubt that both musicians are talented. There is something appealing about rythmn and some semblance of melody.

[Reimerink]

I like Hymas better with PhD

[chessmike100]

well, that was... interesting.

[smoothbabic]

seriously people if you go to a concert of these guys you would understand it better.

Is like acousmatics.

I purely subjective music for subjective thoughts.

At least is my opinion.

I've only seen evan parker once but i can assure you that the feeling is 'uncomfortably great'

[yavorpenkov1]

Well there is not day without night,there is no good without bad and there is not good music without this kind of music

[Vladamire139]

absolutely piss poor

[mannarello]

ammazzati !!!

[99455622]

Oh fuck!! I'we Got headache of this shit man!!

[dikajora]

Gorgeous. Parker is just incredible.

[CrankyBear01]

Gorgeous......? are you high? No wonder the general public hates jazz if this is what they are exposed to. even as a Jazz musician, i really must say I hate this. The whole Avante Garde movement in jazz really tanked its popularity...

[freejazzfree]

feelin a little cranky?

your anaylsis is pretty empty and oversimplified. first of all.. THIS ISNT JAZZ!! i know these fellows are inspired by jazz music but it certainly isnt the basis for the music they make. the fact that 'jazz has tanked in popularity' has little to do with the free community.. i'd say a big part is the fact that jazz is no longer socially relevant. jazz is dead.. long live jazz!

[dikajora]

i can't understand, why people here on youtube cannot leave things to people who love them. it's so easy and cheap to insult here...

by the way: what tanked the popularity of jazz, was rock'n'roll, not the so-called avant garde. and remember: ellington, parker, mingus, coltrane... every single one of them, even armstrong, was avant garde at his time.

[strav12]

Love Evan's circular breathing at the beginning - amazing how closely they follow each other - Christ!

[evzboh]

ROFL.. this is hilarious! (not sure if that's the intended effect)

[Starclimber]

Some feedback for youtube. Frankly, if we're listening to a piece, and we click on 'view all comments', we surely do not want to be directed away from the very piece we are reading comments about. Keeereist.

Oh, and Parker afficiandados, you should have seen his performance at The Ironworks in Vancouver last February. Solo soprano sax, playing maybe 20 notes per second non-stop for some 15 minutes. Spellbinding and unforgettable.

[Starclimber]

Pardon the typos. That's 'aficianado' when not hammered out whilst annoyed.

[jujutay]

You dorks need to raise your IQ's. This is improvising on a top level. Open your ears or keep wanking to Kenny G

[OffsidePick]

Worst thing I ever heard!!!!!!

[SteveTheCart]

Brings back many happy memories! Me, Joe and the boys used to sing this one round the campfire.

[Villa129]

Yeah...with Nina the Pinhead and Joe the Void BELTING out the chorus

[retread01]

@SteveTheCart Oh God, that's the best thing I've read for weeks. Gets better the more I visualise it.

[pazgabriel]

@SteveTheCart AHUhUHAUHUAHuHAUhuHAUhUAHuHUAh­UHAuHAuhUAHahhahaHUAHuhAuhahah­a

[johnsposato]

It sounds like John Cage.

At least now Tony's back in Ph.D. where he belongs.

[grantbrosstudios]

what the hell....

[Donizzle1]

i second that one

[ChuckNorrised]

When I saw the first five seconds of the video (before they started playing), I was expecting their performance to be amazing. It wasn't really. It was sorta edgy and unique, but it mostly hurt my ears. I love jazz, but when I saw this, the only thing I could say was: "do not want."

[MicroDoubleU]

w00t the heeeeellllll?!

[heinrichjohannes]

ok, ok its avantgarde and made by well known musicians, so what...that doesnt inspire me, that doesnt make me happy, the only thing I get from this is a bad kind of ear cancer...would anybody kill this poor suffering animal this music obviously describes, please?

[strav12]

Spine tingling, ear tingling, spirit piercing, slap on the back followed by a steaming double expresso, wake up, outside the box is a universe that is vast and incomprehensible but linked and attuned to itself in patterns and connections polyphonically speaking....listen to it all - again.

[jhulepp2]

music is evertyhing. You need to analize the

the way they compose the music. It's great I can picture it like a mouse running around the my kitchen.

[nomadicjazz23]

i love it !!!

[buddhasphere]

more power to your sax!

[ContrabassSaxophone]

guys, come on, this is avant-garde!

[parrots4justice]

oh my god. what the hell???

[hitmanisback]

god it sounds like a shopping trolly with a squeaky wheel,that sax is in pain

[soymartino]

that's interesting...

[RedskiAKAAutumn]

I love this guy's tenor sax playing but I'm sorry to say it the soprano sax stuff sounds like nothing on earth. Saw Parker playing with Tom Jenkinson (the man being Squarepusher, a bassist), we were late back from the interval and came into to a soprano sax solo and I just thought; 'ok I can understand that this is freeform jazz which is fine and that this is probably very skillful and clever but it sounds like a tornado's ripped through a music shop'.

[gomachols]

tornados ripping through a music shop sound AWESOME bro

[bjedwards]

Check out this site for top CD's by the world renowned drummer Mr Tony Levin

raremusicrecordings co uk

[DoctorPatient]

uhh, Dude - Tony Levin's a bass player, right? ... world reknowned drummer whose first name is Tony? my guess would be Tony Williams

[bjedwards]

No, it is tony levin a great drummer worth checking out, he is from the uk. check out this site to hear some of his stuff. raremusicrecordings co uk

[DoctorPatient]

bj- thanks for the clarification! ... I was only familiar with the Krimson/Gabriel bassist's work, but will check out the site you included - thanks again

[matheuseltz]

Very bad!!!!! Very rotten!!!!!!!! the pianist is good... hahahaha lier lier.

[matheuseltz]

coitado do pianista ,que queimou o filme dele,tocando com esse RUIM!

[russumm1]

It is really a treat to hear someone like Tony Hymas play this music--he seems up to the challenge--I'm used to hearing him with such musicians as, say, Jeff Beck. It takes towering technique to play this sort of music and terrific ears. For the better players, such as Evan Parker, it takes a immense amount of harmonic knowledge to play against obvious harmony. The lesser players seem to slip in and out of it.

[RattlerBK]

I've actually been pretty open-minded about it enough to research it for quite a while. Surprisingly, Bailey said in his book that this art had nothing to do with Dadaism, or any of the avant-garde. Read it.

As far as my being closed-minded, Confucious say: "Not good to be too open-minded...your brain fall out". :)

[RattlerBK]

Also, Bailey didn't like the idea of, or at least his free improv, being labelled 'avante-guard music'..which at least up until that point in time (between 1962-76) cannoted serialism, tape-loopages, electronic experimental music, soundscapes and the like. He also didn't like the idea of free-improv being mistaken for/lumped in with 'chance music', like that of John Cage's.

[defdeezy]

the issue is that no art can be truly free unless the person performing the artform has amnesia--marcel duchamp's desire to live without memory

[RattlerBK]

Such is the case, I just can't see how this music/style can be, or is really 'free' of any and all genres, which is supposed to be it's intension: to be 'non-idomatic'. (continued)

[RattlerBK]

I just personally need something to 'anchor' the music (like drone notes as one example) just a little bit, of course without it prohibiting the artists' freedom of expression. Yet, there's another thing though: upon listening to the video again a few times more, I can hear trickles and traces of bebop, modal and free-jazz, early-twentieth century art music, and the blues. (continued)

[RattlerBK]

Well, I do sincerely apologize for my earlier very rude and offensive remarks, and especially to wd45 who posted this video. Yes, that was what was cowardice. I've since bought and read Derek Bailey's book (I highly recommend it, even for non-fans!) "Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music"; and I love the CONCEPT behind free-improvisation. (continued)

[heathdwatts]

Evan Parker has amazing technique and sound. He's not interested in playing "music," but is instead interested in playing all the sounds that a soprano sax can make, not just the conventional ones. Very good stuff. Please listen to some of my music at my myspace page under Heath Watts or Grass Hair Duo, if you like free jazz/improv.

[CharleeVee]

Whos that frrjazzfree geezer commenting here - he's all the things that are wrong with this site. You come here to check out some interesting music and some dumb ass keeps ranting on. i bet he's fucking annoying if your sitting next to him at a gig.

[RichardJ60]

come here to check out interesting music charleevee more like the only thing you are interested in is mozart and Keeethy Jarret....nice to see the comments of good intent have gotten under your skin...take your head out of KJ donkey and the wool out of your ears abnd keep your ego out of the picture. some of us appreciate those that take the time to put these video of great music up.

[RichardJ60]

Evan Parker is one of the great inovators of the 20/21st century ....more please!

[Klomag]

gotta love this stuff,

studies show that if you listen to evan Parker music for 20 minutes before you go to bed, you will have pyschedelic dream-hallucinations

[edcerc]

this is awsome evan parker is on of the best soprano players ive ever, right heard up their with coltrane

[freejazzfree]

its cowardice.. and its also uninformed fearful subjectivity. maybe if bkratler or others of this sort actually had some sort of informed intelligent opposition to such forms of expression that they could articulate then maybe their opinions would actually have some value. GUYS.. YOURE NOT SAYING ANYTHING. SAY SOMETHING. STOP BEING COWARDS

[freejazzfree]

i wish that the comment section of youtube would actually be a place for intelligent discourse where people could really learn from one another.. informing others as to the aesthetics for certain kinds of art. youtube comments is a refuse dump for the worst kind of adolescent bullshit because one thinks they have anonymity.

[charmincp]

this is music for human beings not for stupid puppets

like...

[DontBeAMusicSnob]

>luckily for the world your opinion doesn't mean shit

Neither does yours.

Krachen, don't fool yourself!

>hahaha do you really think anyone cares?

You do, hahaha!

[Adebay0r]

wtf was that?

[BeekHC]

I got my money back at this concert.

[CarsonFreeman]

Didn't Kenny G originally record this with electronic keyboards and drum machine? I may be wrong.

[disgruntleddave]

Avant Garde is more about expression than it is conformation to musical norms.

I would not call this musical at all. I don't enjoy it. I still understand that like all other music, it is an artists expressions and still can be categorized as music because it uses instruments and such as tools for expression.

[Krachen]

It's been a while that noise became music. No. Noise became music before harmony. Just try to erase your (crappy) (sub)culture of fast consumer and reeducate your subservient oars, then you could feel how haunting, sweet, exciting (or whatever) this music can be. Of course at the first listening it requires an effort of will.. Its the only problem.. lack of will. (Xcuz my english). U think I'm snob? I'm just a bumpkin and no one can be both.

[ADURG1]

wonderful. thanks for sharing. i think that this is beautiful. and i am NOT lying to myself.

[BKRattler]

Yeah, this 'music' is bullshit; just noise. Anyone who says they 'enjoy' this genre is lying, or lying to themselves.

People who listen to this stuff, or claim to, are either: A) snobs and/or B) lying snobs who in reality listen to music equivalent to the intelligence of the Sesame Street show opening theme.

This shit makes me want to poke my eyes out with a knife like Rodney Dangerfield in that movie where the little girl is "practicing scales" on her violin, lol!

[bedtime4bonzo]

luckily for the world your opinion doesn't mean shit

[commp5]

you're the liar, and stupid too

[defdeezy]

essentially, you are parading your close-mindedness! excellent!

[wallabyman]

wow, I sounded like that the very first time I played the sax! Wow!

[jakethesnake10000]

If you dont like the piece, dont watch it. I like it. But I'd say its more likely Martin Davidson masturbates to a mirror.

[BKRattler]

This is just terrible. I don't understand why otherwise great musicians like Parker, Coxhill, do 'free improvisation'. I bet Martin Davidson masturbates to Picasso.

[freejazzfree]

hahaha do you really think anyone cares? get a life buddy

[flimi]

this guy is phenomenal

[JoelmanJames]

That's some sound production right there yea ain't it now. lines burnt in light and such and so forth and yea.

[francort]

bellissimo! Data della registrazione?