Two free-improv titans at work – and both Swiss. Percussionist Favre has been a huge presence in Europe since the 1960s, and his relationship with pianist Schweizer goes back to 1966. A hard-hitting pianist who also brings delicacy and shape to unstructured music, Schweizer ripples seamlessly throughout. She lets Favre fill shrewdly scattered open spaces, powers into jazzy pulses, disappears into quiet meditations, broods in booming chords, and delivers as dazzling a display as any in her field. Favre unleashes a percussion showcase of earthquake rumbles and chattering stickwork on a dedication to the bassist Peter Kowald. Unwritten Messages is an investigation of under-the-lid pluckings. Nomades and Waltz for Joyce get close to free-jazz Bill Evans. The kind of free jazz that makes the idiom new friends, and likely to be one of the albums of the year. - John Fordham
Ms. Schweizer has long been one of guiding lights of European avant-jazz piano since early recordings from the late sixties. She has five amazing duos with a number of the best improvising drummers from around the globe, Louis Moholo, Han Bennink, Gunter Sommer, Andrew Cyrille and now her second duo recording with the wonderful Swiss percussionist/drummer Pierre Favre. Irène and Pierre first played in a trio together as far back as 1966 and soon worked with Peter Kowald, Peter Brotzmann and Evan Parker! Irène and Pierre first played as a duo in the early seventies and have continued to do duos sporadically ever since. There is an extraordinary balance here of two strong, well matched musicians, a mature and well seasoned integration of focused free spirits. Pierre Favre is also one of Europe's finest percussionists and composers, with some half dozen great releases on Intakt and ECM. The first piece, "Twin Dialogue", moves effortlessly through a variety of connected genres, from some more melodic freer regions to a rich and refined bluesy second half, later inventing song-like structures from different connected streams. Incredibly well recorded, it was impossible to tell that this was live (from May of this year) until I heard the applause. "It's About Time" shows a more minimal, yet still enchanting side, which evolves through dynamic, yet controlled eruptions. There are a number of powerful and intense sections, yet they can end with some wonderfully peaceful conclusions. On "Unwritten Messages", Irène plays some incredibly nimble and magical sounds from inside the piano as Pierre also elegantly weaves ultra-subtle percussive spice in the cracks. They occasionally break into some surprising, yet endearing song-like sections, forgetting just who I was listening toS? A Ramsey Lewis meets Ahmad Jamal gospelish thang, maybe?!? Forget I said that, just enjoy. - Bruce Gallanter
Pianist Irène Schweizer and drummer Pierre Favre's accomplishments within the European modern jazz/improvising scene are well documented. Besides, this outstanding release proves that notion beyond a glimmer of doubt. Recorded live in front of an appreciative audience, the duo fares rather well sans a bassist. In fact, they often perpetuate a sound and demeanor that is quite deceptive. As Ms Schweizer's busy and effective left-hand chord voicings often serve as an additional rhythmic component. But it's the duo's intuitiveness or second guessing mechanisms that provide a glowing aura to the body of these six pieces. On this outing, the listener will be treated to Ms Schweizer's flailing arpeggios and Favre's polyrhythmic attack, underscored with contrapuntal exercises amid a quasi, structured-free approach. They activate an element of controlled turbulence via an assortment of surprising contrasts built upon mini-motifs often enacted as sub-themes amid variances in meter. At times, the musicians mimic each other, while countering notions and reengineering frantic movements into toe-tapping grooves. And in other instances, the artists surge onward with the energy of a rumbling freight train. To that end, this impeccably recorded CD, duly captures the musicians' wit, technical veracity, and insightful communion of the musical spirits. (Feverishly recommended) - Glenn Astarita
Schweizer has been one of Europe's finest improvising pianists for decades now and yet her visibility has never been as high as those of her contemporaries. Aficionados know, however, that she's been at the keys for some of the most invigorating piano/percussion recordings (with Bennink, Cyrille, Moholo, Sommer, and a previous one with Favre) since Cecil's triumphal stand in Berlin in 1988. This rambunctious live date from 2003 has Schweizer with longtime friend Favre (usually found these days in highly structured contexts like his European Chamber Ensemble, who have recorded excellent work for Intakt) cranking out the kind of free-flowing but utterly cohesive playing for which they are known. The two must have been feeling particularly joyous that night, since they dip regularly into not just the waters of free improvisation but those of blues, swing, bop, and other formative influences which they clearly relish. These are the kinds of sources that for years Europe's free players kept suppressed or masked, but have recently (think Parker, think Schlippenbach, think Johansson) been unashamedly exploring. Sure, Schweizer's heavy touch, her interstellar Tristano lines, and her punchy rhythmic cells are all here, as is her wonder-to-behear structural imagination. But there's a real playfulness and lyricism to these improvisations that lifts this recording a notch or two above others like it. On ÒIt's About Time,Ó for example, the two somehow work their way into a space which recalls a lost Monk composition of some sort, with a ragged dissonance and fractured rhythmic sense that lingers in the memory. And the swaggering ÒNomadsÓ even borders on freebop, thrashing away with abandon. Though they play with form, they don't do so in a predictable fashion: for example, I love the fact that the piece dedicated to Peter Kowald isn't some tritely reflective affair but a raging, head-first barrage filled with the spirit of Kowald's music. Favre opens it with a solo turn filled with tom-tom thunderclaps which are soon joined by sheets of pianistic sound in a crazed romp that recalls the intensity (but thankfully not the excesses) of Willi the Pig. Elsewhere, the inside-piano clatter of ÒUnwritten MessagesÓ isn't always convincing (though I enjoyed the Tippett-like harpsichord imitation), but when this piece evolves into a textural essay it becomes compelling. And finally, it's only with the closing ÒWaltz for LoisÓ where you really get a chance to savor the musicians' reflective side, with Schweizer coming up with some engagingly chromatic playing. Taken altogether, there might be nothing particularly revelatory about this recording. But that's no knock. Roiling, energetic, propulsive, but nonetheless filled with subtleties, this is duo music of a high order. - Bagatellen
Tracks
1. Twin Dialogue1
2. It's About Time
3. Ulrich, Ulrich, Der Wagen Bricht! (Dedicated To Peter Kowald)
4. Unwritten Messages
5. Nomades
6. Waltz For Lois
PIERRE FAVRE drums
IRÈNE SCHWEIZER piano
Recorded on 2 May 2003 live at Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon.
Intakt Records – Intakt CD 084