Listen & tracks
13 works · 51:09
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1 We know Webern Keith Humble 4:03
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2 Extremes Keith Humble 4:29
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3 Where to? Keith Humble 2:42
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4 Wait Keith Humble 3:56
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5 Slide Keith Humble 4:53
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6 Quiet Keith Humble 3:07
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7 Space Keith Humble 3:38
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8 The meeting Keith Humble 6:05
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9 One note slap Keith Humble 4:26
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10 Dark Keith Humble 4:54
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11 A little groove Keith Humble 2:27
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12 Histoire dance Keith Humble 1:21
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13 The sound of bass Keith Humble 5:08
The reputations of Keith Humble and Bert Turetzky go well beyond their standing as virtuosos.
What we hear are two artists with uncommon empathy for one another, who invariably brought high energy and spirit to their music-making. Their spontaneity, and their sense of form and space, make this music timeless.
Among their many other activities over long careers, both built international reputations as pioneers of new music; this session shows that shared language at full stretch.
Reviews
Kinetic Conversations, is an extraordinary and rare find, a heady 100%-proof concoction distilled once and only in the off-hours of a March afternoon at the University of California, San Diego, in 1986. The opening track We Know Webern, a glistening gem that seems unearthed from the same ground as the glancing blows and bare outlines of Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet. Though fully improvised, it sounds thoroughly composed, a music of abrupt shifts and razorial edits, snatches and snippets of filigreed condensate, pockets of hockets. Histoire dance, the album’s penultimate track, nods again in Webern’s direction, now to Stravinsky, and his jaunty l’Histoire du Soldat. Stravinsky’s rhythmic pulse is recognisable in the ostinato bounce of Turetzky’s bass, whilst Humble’s wayward hybrid spins a sideward dance, a vodka-sot devilry that miscegenates the original’s tango and ragtime, waltz and march. Bursting out of these two’s unsquared brackets, the music springboards in all directions, wild and unpredictable, reflecting the shared sympathies and stomping grounds of this dynamic duo: jazz, elemental sound, noise, intuition, humour, virtuosity.
Keith Humble (1927-1995) distinguished himself as a composer of concert and electro-acoustic music, as a brilliant interpreter of new music and as an educator. This collection of recordings with legendary American contrabassist, Bertram Turetsky, represents another side of Humble’s versatility, namely free improvisation...The opening track, We know Webern is an excellent introduction to the amazing array of timbres, extended techniques and idiomatic gestures that Turetsky has developed for the contrabass. The sparse texture featuring sporadic and melodically angular interplay between piano and contrabass highlights the finesse of Turetsky’s technique...Overall the improvisations for piano and contrabass are more sonically appealing than those involving electronic sounds. The synthesised sounds lack the rich timbral, dynamic and gestural interest of the stunning contrabass playing. Some of the improvisations using piano are also marred by an out-of-tune instrument. It is probably the case that these live recordings were never intended for release but it is a small price to pay for the chance to hear the unique performances of these two remarkable musicians.
Artists
Keith Humble
piano
Keith Humble won the National Critics Award in 1977 as the most outstanding recitalist working in Australia, and was appointed AM in 1982 for services to music. He was a constant champion of Australian contemporary music and of Percy Grainger.
Bert Turetzky
double bass
Bertram Turetzky (b. 14 February 1933) is a contemporary American double bass (contrabass) soloist, teacher, and author of The Contemporary Contrabass (1974, 1989), a book that looked at a number of new and interesting ways of playing the double bass including featuring it as a solo performance vehicle with no other instrumental accompaniment.
Digital booklet
Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDFPerformers
- Keith Humble · piano
- Bert Turetzky · double bass
Technical credits
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Recording Engineer
Josef Kucera
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Mastering Engineer
Martin Wright
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Venue
Mandeville Auditorium, University of California, San Diego
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Thanks to
John McCaughey
Tony Gould
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Credit
Ben Thomas
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 51 minutes 9 seconds
- Release date
- 2012
- Categories
- Jazz, Keyboard
- Genres
- Jazz & Improvised, Experimental
- Musical work copyright
- © 2012 Keith Humble and Bert Turetzky
- Sound recording copyright
- ℗ 2012 Move Records
- Catalogue
- MD 3352
- EAN
- 9314574335224
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