steve beresford: c/d, s/d

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I watched steve beresford last night improvising in a duo with christian marclay on turntables. that was the first time i saw him improvise and his schtick looks to me like he doesn't really improvise on anything in particurlar: there is just loads of 'stuff' laid out on the table (and a cornet) and he just makes noises on something or other and then moves to something else and so on. I chatted to Bob zemko during the interval and i used the phrase 'serious play' to describe it.

On the plus side he has a sense of humour but i'm not sure that's enough or not. so what sez ILM? and what abt records? anything you liked?

Marclay (his first appearance in the country in 12 years) was just wonderful. his turntable rocked.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 5 July 2003 07:43 (twenty-two years ago)

some of this was prompted by b*n w*tson's feud; his wire epiphany mentions:

"beresford (piano, proferred arse and plastic water bottle)... crowdpleasing is a double edged sword, though and beresford's clumsy antics obscured the tight rhythms of minton and tomlinson's highly charged exchanges"

interestingly he earlier describes said [alan] tomlinson (who i have never heard of, obv) thus:

"tomlinson has a harebrianed avidity that transfixes you. he arrives on stage like a fugitive from a jacques tati film.... his music hall gambits bridging the gap between jazz expectations and improv hic et nunc. the things he can do with a foil pie tin and a plunger... improv 1, compromise 0"

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Saturday, 5 July 2003 12:12 (twenty-two years ago)

now obv no prizes for saying "well that's b*n innit" but still

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Saturday, 5 July 2003 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

haha b*n in being a bag of huge contradictions shockah.

haven't heard alan tomlinson as well.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 5 July 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember listening to Signals For Tea some years ago. Pleasant, Noel Coward-esque piano tinkling with witty lyrics. At the time it seemed like the more accessible end of the Zorn media empire. Thanks for reminding me about him— I'll have to track down more of his stuff.

― Nick Mirov (nick), Sunday, 6 July 2003 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Did anyone else go to the Marclay / Beresford event at LSO last week? Marclay's turntables indeed 'rocked' (the word used above) and the piece conducted by Beresford based on Marclay's experiment posting empty music sheets around Berlin was superb.

― Japanese Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Sunday, 3 April 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

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