URS BLOCHLINGER REVISITED - Harry Doesn’t Mind
Leo Records CDLR885
Lino Blöchlinger, alto and bass saxophones; Sebastian Strinning, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone; Beat Unternährer, trombone; Silvan Schmid, trumpet; Christoph Baumann, piano; Neal Davis, bass; Dieter Ulrich, drums, bugle
Recorded at Hard Studio, Winterthur, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland, April 23/24 2018
Lino Blöchlinger is the son of Urs Blöchlinger, a Swiss, jazz saxophonist and composer. Urs was an autodidact who first learned on guitar and trumpet before transferring his skills to reeds and flute. He had studied at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern and then at the Music Academy in Zurich. He was seen as a composer of music best described as lavishly colourful, mellow and highly varied. His output was considerable and always revealed facets of composition interlaced with improvisation.
Lino Blöchlinger and fellow musicians set out to rediscover and reveal the richness and variety of the fabrics of which Urs fashioned his music and after a successful tour in April 2018 went on to consolidate that project with this album. Part of Urs’ output comes under the aegis of the ‘overdub’ genre, which, it has been suggested, might have been a well-spring of melodic creation, but could hardly be called jazz. This argument arose from the thinking that jazz and improvisation are about impulsiveness, about musicians interreacting with each other, whereas overdubbing is about laying one thing over another and is pretentious. I wonder if it really matters. More interesting perhaps is the influence on Urs of artists such as William S. Burroughs (The Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine) and his découpé technique; experimental music and sounds by painter Jean Dubuffet (Musique Brut) and such music as from John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Erik Satie and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Thus, we can expect experiment and variety from this revisit to Urs Blöchlinger’s music and Urs Blochlinger Revisited do not disappoint. Their music is vivid, at times incandescent; wilfully, wildly dynamic. It is naturally Avant-garde, all musicians being active on the avant jazz and free improv scenes. It is fervent, authentic, thoroughly modern and entirely interesting. It truly has realised its ambition in revivifying Urs Blöchlinger’s music.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CDLR885
Lino Blöchlinger, alto and bass saxophones; Sebastian Strinning, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone; Beat Unternährer, trombone; Silvan Schmid, trumpet; Christoph Baumann, piano; Neal Davis, bass; Dieter Ulrich, drums, bugle
Recorded at Hard Studio, Winterthur, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland, April 23/24 2018
Lino Blöchlinger is the son of Urs Blöchlinger, a Swiss, jazz saxophonist and composer. Urs was an autodidact who first learned on guitar and trumpet before transferring his skills to reeds and flute. He had studied at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern and then at the Music Academy in Zurich. He was seen as a composer of music best described as lavishly colourful, mellow and highly varied. His output was considerable and always revealed facets of composition interlaced with improvisation.
Lino Blöchlinger and fellow musicians set out to rediscover and reveal the richness and variety of the fabrics of which Urs fashioned his music and after a successful tour in April 2018 went on to consolidate that project with this album. Part of Urs’ output comes under the aegis of the ‘overdub’ genre, which, it has been suggested, might have been a well-spring of melodic creation, but could hardly be called jazz. This argument arose from the thinking that jazz and improvisation are about impulsiveness, about musicians interreacting with each other, whereas overdubbing is about laying one thing over another and is pretentious. I wonder if it really matters. More interesting perhaps is the influence on Urs of artists such as William S. Burroughs (The Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine) and his découpé technique; experimental music and sounds by painter Jean Dubuffet (Musique Brut) and such music as from John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Erik Satie and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Thus, we can expect experiment and variety from this revisit to Urs Blöchlinger’s music and Urs Blochlinger Revisited do not disappoint. Their music is vivid, at times incandescent; wilfully, wildly dynamic. It is naturally Avant-garde, all musicians being active on the avant jazz and free improv scenes. It is fervent, authentic, thoroughly modern and entirely interesting. It truly has realised its ambition in revivifying Urs Blöchlinger’s music.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
