Jazz Music

Rahsaan Roland Kirk and John Cage – Sound?? (1967)

In this indispensable DVD, two of the most interesting films ever made modern experimental jazz are included. The first one, ” Ornette Coleman Trio”, presents Ornette Coleman’s famous trio during their visit to Paris in 1966 in order to record the soundtrack of a very nutty-looking Belgium film called “Who’s Crazy?”.

The second film, also directed by Fontaine, is a curious and original musical and cinematographic experiment. Its strange title, “Sound??”, clearly indicates the objective of the work, which is merely to take advantage of the ideas of an innovative jazzman (Roland Kirk) in order to permit an Avant-garde contemporary (John Cage) to speculate with silence and with sound as two facets of the same reality.

Kirk appears in the film demonstrating his ability to play three saxophones simultaneously, incorporating at the same time recordings of birdsongs or his giving out whistles to the audience in order that they accompany him “in the key of w, if you please”. Parallel to this, Cage talks about his concepts and prepares a piece “musical bicycle” with two of his collaborators at the Seville Theatre of London, introducing Kirk’s music in an echo chamber in its search for the sound of silence. Two extraordinary examples of immortal Avant-gardism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m4xkY0WgVw

Categories: Jazz Music

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