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Sixth Annual Vision Fest Review After five days and 25 sets up at the Victo fest, with just one day off in between I plunged headfirst in the flames of the colossal 15 day Vision Festival and also worked seven days straight here at DMG! I should be burnt out, yet I am exhilarated by the forty plus sets of diverse avant-jazz - most of which has pushed the ever-eager and spirited audience to new heights daily!! The first ten nights were at the Knitting Factory with four to five sets each night in the main room and often two sets in Old Office as well. A number of folks thought that it was a mistake to have this fest at the Knit, but the sound was often the best in years and the Knit has tried hard to accommodate all the festival goers. This is the first year in a long time that the Knit hasn't had their own corporately sponsored Jazz Festival in June, it is in the works for September at present. I have seen/heard some forty plus sets and only one really didn't do much for knock me out - that one was by jazz bagpipes player - Rufus Harley. Along with all of this amazing music, it was the spirit and response of the audience that made this festival so special. Inspired solos and burnin' sets were met with consistently crazed screams, hollars, applause and standing ovations from the hungry audience. The Knit used to call their annual fest - "What is Jazz?", but this year's Vision Fest proved even moreso that the boundary lines imposed by jazz experts are useless due to the extremely diverse approaches that this vast fest presented. Another thing which makes the Vision Fest so special is the inclusion of gifted poets, singers and dancers - who too often get ignored by other jazz festivals because they make people think and question the powers that be. With over forty sets to consider in this two week extravaganza, I will just mention a dozen of the more amazing sets that this year's Vision Fest presented. The one set which everyone in attendance was completely blown away by featured Louis Moholo on drums, Kidd Jordan on tenor sax, Dave Burrell on piano and William Parker on bass. Louis Moholo was once a member of the legendary Blue Notes from South Africa who were forced out of their homeland for mixing races, moved to London in 1964 and turned the British jazz scene inside-out! They evolved into the Brotherhood of Breath by 1970 and included future British jazz greats like Evan Parker, Gary Windo, John Surman & Harry Beckett. Sadly, each member of the Blue Notes (Mongezi Feza, Johnny Dyanni, Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana & later member Harry Miller) have passed away - Louis is the sole survivor! He had only been is the US once before in the late 70's, so his two performances here were met with great expectations. His first set was a duo with Oliver Lake on alto and soprano saxes, which was short and quite restrained - I dug the way Louis played with his short, hand-made sticks gently prodding Oliver's saxes with elegant results. The quartet set was completely phenomenal - four master musicians pushing each other higher and higher! The inner forces moved in waves - building and levitating, cosmic forces erupting with volcanic force. William Parker and Louis were a match made in heaven - following each through mountains and valleys, listening closely and trading ideas back and forth. Kidd Jordan and Dave Burrell also unlocked the doors and let the dense spirits spew freely in often violent flames. An astonishing set! Another mind-blowing set featured Peter Brotzmann, William Parker and Swiss drummer Michael Wertmuller. Although almost no one knew this drummer, everyone was flabbergasted by his driving force - whipping up a hurricane power of almost non-stop intensity! Holy shit, was this set intense! Almost as phenomenal was another quartet with William Parker (again!), Fred Anderson, Adam Rudolph & Hamid Drake! Considering Chicago tenor sax legend Fred Anderson is in his 70's and rarely comes to town, he sure did blow up a storm - taking his time to blow a whirlwind of furious wailing! Both Adam & Hamid are longtime cohorts (also from Chicago) and their rhythms interlock and propel the quartet into a dense flurry of activity. William and Hamid also did a marvelous job backing Ellen Christie - an amazing avant-jazz vocalist who performs infrequently and has rarely gotten the recognition she has long deserved. Ellen has a rich, deep and elastic voice, often sings odd sounds rather than lyrics and did a fine job of weaving her voice in, around and on top of the rhythm team's challenging excursions! Speaking of incredible, weird and expressive vocalists - Ijeoma Thomas, wife and collaborator of west coast mystery man and bass clarinet-c melody sax-musette wonder - Oluyemi Thomas, also blew away anyone lucky enough to hear their quartet set with Wilber Morris & Michael Wimberley as the(ir) perfect rhythm team! Oluyemi has a duo cd out with Alan Silva from earlier this year, as well as an outstanding double cd from this same quartet! It was a special treat to Oluyemi play bass clarinet - ever inspired and captivating throughout, as well as the ultra-rare c-melody sax which looks like an alto, but sounds more like a tenor sax! An immensely cosmic set that flowed with a most natural vibe. Another set which was unexpectedly great was by an international improv quartet which featured Jin Hi Kim on komungo, Gunda Gottschalk on violin & vocalese, Oliver Lake on saxes and William Parker on contrabass. This set had a number of extraordinary moments - Jin Hi's echoplex komungo solo, an outstanding solo from from Gunda on viola & voice and even restrained soloing from both William and Oliver. What was special about this set was that it presented four very different improvisers from much different backgrounds that found a common thread spontaneous composition with strong solos emerging from the tapestry of the improv web. Gunda Gottschalk had also contacted me in advance and played a marvelous solo set here at DMG during the Vision fest, but early enough before the evening's events started. There were non-stop ongoing discussions, arguments, differences of opinion between the many folks who attended this fest in the front bar where a table was set up to sell cds from the independent jazz labels that release much of this avant-jazz. Many of the sets had those who loved what went down, those who were disappointed and even those who thought certain sets sucked!?! Legendary drummer, percussionist, teacher and healer Milford Graves brought a quintet with him for his annual Vision set which certainly divided those who think Milford can do no wrong. After more than a decade of almost no gigs, this 60's free-jazz legend who once played with Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor and the NY Art Qt. began gigging again at rare gigs - Vision, Knit jazz & Victo fests - solo, duo with John Zorn & the NY Art Qt. reunion, plus two superb solo cds on Tzadik. Milford's quintet featured two great saxists - including Joe Rigby (once a McCoy Tyner sideman?), another conga player and up & coming el. guitarist Bruce Eisenbiel who also worked in a Cecil Taylor workshop orchestra earlier this year. Milford's opening solo and duo percussion was magical, free-flowing vibrations. When the rest of the quintet hit, they were completely slamming - Trane-like sax streaming, screaming, cosmic forces at work. At times the chaos of free-jazz begins to spin out of control and sometimes the thread holding this together gets snagged or lost, but then something extraordinary breaks through and it all connects. Milford rarely plays with guitarists, so it was a brave move for both he & Bruce to come together and I felt Bruce did a fine job of adding his distinctive hyper strumming to this otherwise acoustic outfit. The Visions Orchestra presented two works by Warren Smith and Steve Swell and one could tell that much craft and care had gone into both the composing and conducting of this marvelous large and unwieldy all-star ensemble. Warren's work had a number of different sections, each one with different soloists adding their unique sound to the brew. Trombone hero Steve Swell's piece moved in dense and dark waves, like an oncoming storm whipping the ocean into a frenzy. I was blown away by this piece because it took some work to hear the way the undercurrents of structure were connected below the surface. There were a number of sets in which the response was mixed. John Blum is a powerful pianist, who rarely any recognition here in NYC. He played an intense but too short solo set accompanying slides, which had many moments of Don Pullen/Dave Burrell-like cascading waves of notes using his arms with violent and riveting results. His set was cut short due to scheduling problems. Art Ensemble bassist Malachi Favors played a restrained and elegant solo bass set which also both bored some and marveled others. Sometimes subtle moments such as this get ignored due to the expectations those who want too much free-jazz intensity. The final night at the Knit was also unexpectedly wonderful and featured a few great wordsmiths. Jayne Cortez' Fire Spitters featured Bern Nix on guitar and Denardo Coleman on drums, but it was the ferocious and funky sounds of baritone saxist Alex Harding and bassist Charnett Moffett that really pushed this group to inspired heights on each piece. Jayne's words and voice also opened us to many provocative ideas/lyrics! Even more than Jayne's words, were the eye-opening poetry of Amiri and Amina Baraka and their superb ensemble Blue Ark with DD Jackson, Wilber Morris & Pheeroan AkLaff as the rhythm team and the two saxes of Herbie Morgan & Dwight West. Although Amiri is well known for his work with the guiding forces of 60's free-jazz, the music of this set much more laid back and had many gospelish moments. Amiri is like a righteous preacher with a well-pointed sense of humor and his words throughout provided much thought about the forces that control this often unfair land of ours. "A counter-fit president for a fake democracy" left many of us chuckling and engrossed! An important part of the Vision Fest were the many poets and mc's who introduced many of the sets. Steve Dalachinsky, David Budbill, John Ferris, Edwin Torres and the feisty Ishle Yi Park provided much food for thought. My good friend Steve D. introduced many sets with short, heart-felt words of praise and how he first heard many of these legendary musicians - often making many of us feel like being part of a community or family. I sadly missed the two days of films at Anthology Film Archives as part of the Vision Fest due to having to work during the day, but the many folks I spoke with who did attend had mixed reactions. A number of people did mention that they dug the premiere of "Why the Jazz Establishment Can't Hold Down Matt Shipp" and that a section of it was filmed here at DMG!?! We also put together another quick set here at DMG during the Vision with a great trio of vocalist Jessica Constable, Andrea Parkins and our own Okkyung Lee. Jessica is a marvelous avant-vocalist who also played with Ellery Eskelin's trio at the Vision the previous week. The final three nights were at the Orensanz Center, which housed the Vision fest three years back and had a variety of sound problems and lacked any air conditioning, but this time most of the sound problems were worked out and the weather & ac was just right. Orensanz is a much bigger venue (350 seats) and Patricia Nicholson had this idea to place a rock/rap/hip-hop group there each of the three nights. Once again the idea of trying to open the minds of both the avant-jazz and pop listener to new things might work in a more utopian setting, but it had mixed results and response from most of the attendees. It was a special treat to hear & see both the Joe & Mat Maneri Trio and the Joe McPhee Trio X in a large room - they both played startling and challenging no-holds barred sets which blew away the more adventurous listeners. The Yo La Tengo set which included downtown horn heros Sabir Mateen, Daniel Carter & Roy Campbell was also one of those sets which confused, pleased, disappointed and even marvelled the full house crowd. I am a longtime Yo La fan and friend and didn't know what to expect, but mostly I felt it was a fine set which hovered nicely between their rock-psych-surf sound and moments of avant-jazz which never went too far out. The horn players actually played some loose charts and their solos flowed nicely from within the overall groove-oriented din. The following night Roy Campbell's Pyramid Trio with William Parker & Hamid Drake also played a fine set which started out softly and organically and went through a series of finger-snapping groove riffs. (Unknown to me) poet/rapper Mike Ladd's set had some good moments and good beats, but I don't think the jazz crowd cared or listened too much. Charles Gayle's mostly solo tenor sax set was also one of the festivals highlights - he chose to deal with a more streamlined, almost gospel-like vibe with little screaming - a perfect balance of joy, fear, elegance, solitude, frustration, release and melancholy beauty - which is what many of needed. I hung outside during the X-ecutioners set of turntable grooves, because I had already seen/heard them up at Victo last year and was not impressed. The closing set that night was once again a marvel of focused free-flowing spirits from William Parker's Quintet with special guests Perry Robinson on clarinet and an amazing trumpeter from New Orleans named Clyde Kerr who none of us had heard of, but played some riveting solos! I missed the final night at Orensanz because I was burnt out and did have to work late that night. Many of the folks I spoke with had mixed feelings about the David S. Ware set with Matt Shipp on synth, but this is their new direction. Most folks raved about both Patricia Nicholson-William Parker-Billy Bang and the Matt Shipp Trio sets, but none of my jazz buddies seemed to like or even understand what anyone likes about Chan Marshall (Cat Power). Perhaps some progressive rock/jazz players who can improvise well might be a better addition to the Vision Fest next year. Overall this Vision Festival was a mostly extraordinary event, perhaps a bit too long for anyone that can't deal with the 15 days and fifty plus sets of often challenging and diverse music, poetry, dance, art and films. I am still exhilarated by much of what went down and a bit overwhelmed. People came from all over the world for this special feast of the senses, so it was nice to make some new friends. Special thanks to Patricia and William Parker and everyone who worked hard to make this festival so special. A book about the Vision Fest and the musicians who play there has just been published and was sold there - it is called "New York is Now" by Phil Freeman. Considering Phil has only been into this music for three years and was a metal-head previously, it is wonder that anyone would publish this at times well-meaning piece of shit! Although Phil only has great things to say about William Parker, David S. Ware and Matt Shipp, his ridiculous notion that John Zorn and Howard Mandel are bigger enemies of free-jazz than Stanley Grouch and Wonton Marsalis is absurd and sadly misguided. He blames the downfall of the NY free-jazz scene on Zorn's rise to fame and Zorn's lack of respect for tradition. This is complete bullshit. Zorn has long worked with, understands and respects the so-called free-jazz tradition, but also works with and works hard at a wide variety of traditions, genres and styles. Zorn's duo with Milford Graves at the Vision fest a few years back was one of the most startling and extreme examples of that free-jazz spirit - were you sleeping Phil?!? Phil also puts down great European players like Evan Parker & Derek Bailey whose improvisations start anywhere and go nowhere - this sounds more like Stanley Grouch nonsense to me. Read this trash at your own peril. Reviewed by gig-guru Bruce Lee Gallanter.