Marilyn Crispell & Irene Schweizer /Free Jazz/

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Marilyn Crispell
One of the finest modern jazz pianists, Marilyn Crispell first emerged as an exciting, adventurous soloist and composer on the free scene in the early '80s. She was a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet during the '80s and '90s, and also led a number of her own dates (mostly for Leo and Music & Arts) during this period. Although not as widely acclaimed as she deserves, Crispell has nevertheless gained an increasing amount of respect and fewer write-offs as simply a pianist in the Cecil Taylor vein.

Crispell is a rarity in that she's not interested in hard bop, jazz/hip-hop, or fusion. Her style, with its slashing phrases, percussive mode, clusters, and speed, pays homage to Cecil Taylor (whom she reveres), but isn't merely an imitation. She's not as dance-oriented, and her use of space, African rhythms, and chording also recall Thelonious Monk and Paul Bley, two others she cites as influences, along with Leo Smith.

Crispell started piano lessons at seven at the Peabody Music School in Baltimore. She later studied piano and composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Crispell abandoned music for marriage and medical work in 1969. But she returned to the music world six years later, moving to Cape Cod after a divorce and being introduced to the sound of transitional John Coltrane (A Love Supreme) by pianist George Kahn. Crispell attended Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio and studied jazz harmony with Charlie Banacos in Boston. She met Anthony Braxton at the studio, and toured Europe with his Creative Music Orchestra in 1978, recording on his Composition 98 album in 1981. Crispell began playing solo and leading groups in the '80s, teaming with Billy Bang and John Betsch in one band. She made several albums on the Music & Arts and Leo labels, among others, working with Reggie Workman, Doug James, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Davis, Tim Berne, Marcio Mattos, Eddie Prevost, and several others.

Crispell continued recording throughout the '90s, yielding a number of incredible albums and interesting lineups that included her Braxton Quartet bandmates Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway, as well as sessions with Paul Motian, Irene Schweizer, Workman, Georg Graewe, Braxton, Gary Peacock, Fred Anderson, and many others, not to mention a few solo recordings, including Live at Mills College 1995. Marilyn Crispell has performed at a large number of jazz and avant-garde festivals, occasionally as a solo artist, as with her set at FIMAV 2000 (aka Victoriaville 2000), which preceded a solo set by Cecil Taylor.

Irene Schweizer
Pianist Irene Schweizer performed and recorded with leading European improvisers and free jazz musicians since the 1960s, including female improvising groups starting in the late '70s. One of the initial organizers of the Taktlos and Canaille music festivals, she is also a founding member of the Intakt label. Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1941, Schweizer grew up hearing dance bands in her father's restaurant. When she was about 12 years old, she started playing on the piano, and a couple of years later picked up the drums as well. At the age of 17, Schweizer's interest moved away from early jazz styles toward modern jazz, leading to her entry in a Zurich amateur festival in 1960. From 1961 to 1962, the aspiring pianist lived in England, working as an au pair, and taking piano lessons primarily with Eddie Thompson, who taught her stride, bebop, and more. When Schweizer returned to Switzerland, she was playing soul-jazz and hard bop, and started up a trio with drummer Mani Neumeier and Uli Trepte. Her playing was soon influenced by the South African players she heard at Zurich's African Jazz Cafe. Her exposure to Johnny Dyani, Dollar Brand, and others also came around the same time Schweizer heard Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. In addition to these influences, Schweizer was heavily affected by the recordings of Cecil Taylor. Her trio became known outside of Switzerland, and was invited to play the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in 1966. While there, Schweizer heard such German improvisers as saxophonist Peter Brotzmann and bassist Peter Kowald. The same year, she finally heard Cecil Taylor live, and as sometimes happens when musicians witness someone they revere, she considered giving up the piano as a result. Lucky for music fans, Schweizer instead turned to developing her individual style and technique. During the late '60s, she was active in a trio with Kowald and Pierre Favre which Evan Parker eventually joined. This group disbanded a few years before her collaborations with Rьdiger Carl began in 1973 (Schweizer and Carl continued to work together off and on throughout their careers). Schweizer began giving solo performances starting in 1976, at the Willisau Jazz Festival. Schweizer also became involved in the Feminist Improvising Group, joining Maggie Nichols, Lindsay Cooper, and more. The group changed its name in 1983 to one with less political connotations: the European Women's Improvising Group. Out of this large group arose an intermittent trio of Schwiezer, Nichols, and Joлlle Lйandre, called Les Diaboliques, formed in the early '90s. Schweizer has recorded with amazing musicians from around the world, including pianist Marilyn Crispell, and leading percussionists Han Bennink, Andrew Cyrille, Gьnter Sommer, and more.


[1990] Overlapping Hands: Eight Segments

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This duet adds truckloads of weight to the feminist argument that feminine innovation has largely been ignored in the world of jazz in general and improvised music in particular (the latter is truly weird when one considers just how many women from Mary Lou Williams to Joлlle Lйandre to Lauren Newton to Linda Sharrock to Lindsay Cooper to Julie Tippetts to Marilyn Crispell and Irиne Schweizer have played key roles in the music). Ms. Crispell and Ms. Schweizer are innovators and highly individualized stylists who acknowledge both Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor as influences (Taylor, by the way, acknowledged Mary Lou Williams as one of his); Ms. Schweizer also cites Dollar Brand and McCoy Tyner. Given the stature of these two players, it's a wonder they didn't appear together before this. No matter. What occurs here is perhaps the most unified improvised duet of any on record since Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons in 1939. Recorded in 1990, it still holds true as an off the cuff record, one made just yesterday while you were sitting there listening with your mouth open. The "segments" (as they are referred to in the title) are different types of improvisation, different explorations not only for the two musicians encountering one another, but also in their encounters with the piano. The most obvious is the rhythmic component that takes place throughout but is highlighted most in the first: Ms. Schweizer, like Monk, is a very rhythmic player, stridently seeking out lines and tempos that suit the physicality of her sense of time and beat. Ms. Crispell, given her place in Anthony Braxton's quartet with a rhythm section that included drummer Gerry Hemingway and bassist Mark Dresser, has always — by her own admission — moved against rhythm, riding herd over it in some cases, and through the middle of its force in others. So at times this feels like a dueling percussion session. But there is so much more. Both women are inventive and intuitive counterpoint players and run that notion through a very challenging set of modes here. Another place is Schweizer's love of ragtime and blues; she places long lines of early jazz — some right from Lil Hardin's piano book — into the heart of Crispell's aggressive chromatics, creating another kind of counterpoint, one that fills in all the dots. And finally, in other places, there is a union of intuitive tonal and modal engagement suggesting this set was rehearsed (it wasn't). At the end of the set, one is left exhausted and breathless, satisfied and literally amazed. There is only one problem: There isn't another record to play after this.

Tracks
1 Segment 1 6:36
2 Segment 2 3:47
3 Segment 3 9:11
4 Segment 4 9:30
5 Segment 5 9:02
6 Segment 6 9:34
7 Segment 7 6:09
8 Segment 8 12:33

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