Ganelin, Vysniauskas and Kugel are more than just plain avant-gardists that break up all connections behind them just to pay tribute to some future aesthetic. They make use of the method of American jazz in order to listen deeply into the European musical tradition...
Ganelin Trio Priority Live in Lugano
Label: Not Two, 2007 Catalogue No: MW 783-02 Format: CD, Mini LP format (no plastic)
Tracks: 1. Conversation III [38:10] 2. Conversation IV [37:26]
Performed by: Vyacheslav Ganelin - piano, synthesizer, percussion Petras Vysniauskas - soprano saxophone Klaus Kugel - drums, percussion
Recorded: at Studio 2, Radio Svizzera, Lugano, Switzerland on November 10, 2006
About: (all text courtesy of Ganelin Trio website)
Ganelin, Vysniauskas and Kugel are more than just plain avant-gardists that break up all connections behind them just to pay tribute to some future aesthetic. They make use of the method of American jazz in order to listen deeply into the European musical tradition. That way, they shed light on great gestures of baroque music, they internalize the painful individualism of Romanticism and recapitulate the careless lightness of traditional folk music. It is no less than trans-European, inter-traditional and multi-sensual improvised music. What was said above about their rich musical supply is also true without exception for the pianists new formation. With Vysniauskas and Kugel, Ganelin may be less missionary and pugnacious as in the 70´s. But in an age of euphemisms where all fronts have been veiled or dissolved, precisely translatable statements make sense only for the most ardent of idealists. Today´s Ganelin Trio draws from the variety of life an even greater amount of options and perspectives. By not submitting to the worn out primacy of the moment but instead implicating the freedom of the whole process in every moment of their play the new Ganelin Trio is without comparison in European music. (Wolf Kampmann, Berlin, 2006)
Vyacheslav Ganelin was born in Moscow in 1944. He graduated in 1968 from the State Conservatory Vilnius/Lithuania where he then taught composition; he subsequently became Music Director of the Vilnius Russian Drama Theatre. In 1971 he had founded the "Ganelin Trio" (with V. Chekassin and V. Tarasov) which toured most European countries durings the ‘70s and the '80s, and had an extraordinary success worldwide. In 1987 he left Lithuania and emmigrated to Israel. In 1999 he founded the new GANELIN TRIO PRIORITY. Vyacheslav Ganelin has written compositions for symphonic orchestra, theater, chamber music, vocal ensembles, jazz big-band, two operas, three pieces for ballet and the sound tracks for more than 30 films.
Petras Vysniauskas Something of the rugged beauty of the Lithuanian countryside and the passion of many of his fellow countrymen has been breathed into his music. The use of themes from traditional folk music is one facet of this saxophonist, who reflects both the modern development in jazz and the sound idioms of the new and latest improvised and composed music." (Bert Noglik) Inspired by his playing, several composers of symphonic or chamber music composed pieces especially for him. Petras Vysniauskas played with Steve Lacy, Han Bennink, Jon Christensen, Tomasz Stanko, Vladimir Chekasin BigBand, Vyacheslav Ganelin, Kent Carter, Jimmy Owens, Elliot Sharp, Paul Jeffrey, the "Rova Saxophone Quartet", Charly Mariano, Karl Berger, Bobo Stenson, Vijay Iyer, Hilliard Greene a.o..
Klaus Kugel "Most ensembles can only wish for a percussionist with such high skill and perceptive musicianship as Klaus Kugel" - Frankfurter Rundschau, Germany Since 1989 he has been playing intensively with the lithuanian soprano-saxophonist Petras Vysniauskas in many different projects. Klaus Kugel is one of the most inventive and adventurous German drummers. He attracted attention worldwide through projects with Petras Vysniauskas, Karl Berger, Tomasz Stanko, Theo Jorgensmann, Charlie Mariano, Kent Carter, Kenny Wheeler, Bobo Stenson, Vijay Iyer, Charles Gayle a.m.o.. In NYC he plays regulary with Steve Swell, Sabir Mateen, Perry Robinson, Hilliard Greene, Roy Campbell, Bruce Eisenbeil, Robert Dick.
Review:
There's nothing like hearing a group in concert to reawaken interest. The Ganelin Trio Priority played a staggering set on the penultimate evening of the June, 2007 Vision Festival, a continuous and constantly morphing shock-and-awe campaign in which all national and international demarcations were obliterated. Slava Ganelin himself, the founder and only original member of the fabled Soviet improvising trio, began the proceedings with a piano solo that was authoritative and moving, hovering somewhere between homage and prayer as it slowly built and began to writhe. Eventually, the trio even destroyed its own admittedly permeable boundaries, electronic billows, dual percussion bouts and long swells and fades giving the illusion of many more players and infinitely possible sound worlds. Change was the only constant, the powerful heights majestically roaring, the moments of reflection exuding solitude, sometimes note by preciously disturbing note. The Polish Not Two label should be thanked profusely for presenting a live document of this fine and animated trio. Recorded in 2006, the live Ganelin sound translates to CD remarkably well; each piece is approximately thirty-eight minutes long and, along with the very faithful recording, gives any interested listener as authentic an experience as possible of the live event. Additionally, the CD allows for the perusal of every detail, such as the stunning drum/sax duo that opens "Conversation IV." Also, Ganelin's pianism can be appreciated from moment to moment, his attention to dynamics and shading equaled only by his virtuosity. Really though, the recording should be heard in a sitting, experienced as it unfolds, turns back on itself and reopens, transcending history and time as it follows its own inexorable logic. No matter how good their previous recordings seem, this might be the trio's definitive statement, the next best thing to experiencing the group in person.
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