-----Original Message----- From: Franz Fuchs [mailto:f.fuchs@gmx.net] Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 8:54 AM To: ssmith36@sprynet.com Subject: RE: Life of Brian
He's active on at least one jazz-related BBS I'm aware of, and recently attended the recording sessions for an upcoming Keith Rowe / John Tilbury 2CD set on Erstwhile and provided a scintillating preview on another mailing list.
could you forward this preview about the Rowe/Tilbury project to the Zorn-list or provide a URL for the list it originally appeared on? Thanks!
Sorry to take so long to honor this request... it's been a really trying couple of weeks and I'm still catching up with older correspondence. Here's Brian's report from the Rowe and Tilbury sessions, which paint quite the remarkable picture. Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com
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Just back from a week in France with Jon and thought I'd post an advance alert on this session. I'll probably write something more elaborate on the Erstwhile site in the near future. Rowe and Tilbury had never recorded as a duo ("Except when Eddie stops playing", as Keith wryly puts it) so we were looking forward to this session with more than the usual amount of anticipation. But when Keith picked us up from the train station in Nantes, we were informed that Tilbury's mom (95) had suffered a stroke the previous evening and wasn't expected to live very long. Obviously, the session became secondary, but over the phone, Tilbury said that if she were to die in the next day or two, he would still try to make a single day of the planned two-day session but that if she stayed in the same condition for several days, he'd have to stay with her. As the fates would have it, she died that Saturday and we met Tilbury at Gare de l'Est on Monday morning for the long train ride to Nancy. Though clearly affected, he was as gracious, warm, humorous and (typically, I imagine) forthright as one could imagine. On Tuesday, the duo recorded about three hours of material on the Vand'oeuvre stage. In four sets, they created five pieces, roughly 70, 20, 20, 50 and 20 minutes long. In the days beforehand, Keith had talked quite a bit about Tilbury's extraordinary sense of touch and that aspect was just so perfectly clear on that afternoon. This was music of unusual depth and beauty even for these two old pros. Sometimes, understandable given the circumstances, it was quite emotional; maybe even most of the time. Often somber but always with at least a small optimistic nudge somewhere in there. Tilbury incredibly fleet at catching an idea tossed by Rowe; once, Keith let loose a yawp of feedback that John instantaneously captured and dissembled miraculously into a series of romantic, dreamy chords. Tough to describe, of course, but they, at several points, entered areas that we all thought they'd never previously ventured into. The recording will be a two-disc set and will be dedicated to John's mom, Doris. I realize I'm in danger of overplaying it this early but, man, this was some beautiful, beautiful music. Thanks to Jon for allowing me to sit in on this event.