Re: Rock - what are you listening to?
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 9:44 pm
Many thanks for bringing the Henry Cow box to my attention, Dermot. I missed it completely. I shall have to place an order once the world returns to some kind of normality. I still remember buying Unrest and In Praise of Learning as expensive CD imports from Virgin in Dublin. I have a distant recollection of reading some article about Robert Fripp and there was some reference to Fred Frith and Henry Cow in the article. It must have been a magazine I respected like The Wire because I immediately placed a blind order for the two Henry Cow CDs (which were not cheap, believe me).
Nothing could have prepared me for that music. Prior to Henry Cow, I thought King Crimson’s Larks’ Tongues In Aspic was complex but, in comparison, Henry Cow was a world apart. What helped me immensely was my earlier exposure to modern classical music like Edgar Varese and Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg which I had encountered via Frank Zappa but it was still undeniably a challenge. This music is demanding and requires patience and commitment on the part of the listener. I struggled with the music but persisted and, 30 years laters, I am still reaping the dividends from these intense listening sessions.
An important part of the Henry Cow musical landscape was bassoonist Lindsay Cooper who forged a remarkable career as musician and composer. Sadly, she passed away in September 2013. It emerged that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was an active member of Henry Cow and she chose not to disclose this diagnosis to anybody because she apparently thought that it would affect the way her music was perceived. She was a true artist, deeply committed and unreservedly respected by her peers. Here is a wonderful clip (though sadly brief) of this wonderful artist with the Mike Westbrook Ensemble. Nobody could rock a bassoon quite like Ms. Cooper.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qp9KZvwOl9M
And here is Fred Firth’s ensemble, Gravity, performing a piece he wrote for Ms. Cooper a mere two days after her passing:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mIuaLo5Jdo0
Our world would be immeasurably poorer without the contributions of artists such as these.
Nothing could have prepared me for that music. Prior to Henry Cow, I thought King Crimson’s Larks’ Tongues In Aspic was complex but, in comparison, Henry Cow was a world apart. What helped me immensely was my earlier exposure to modern classical music like Edgar Varese and Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg which I had encountered via Frank Zappa but it was still undeniably a challenge. This music is demanding and requires patience and commitment on the part of the listener. I struggled with the music but persisted and, 30 years laters, I am still reaping the dividends from these intense listening sessions.
An important part of the Henry Cow musical landscape was bassoonist Lindsay Cooper who forged a remarkable career as musician and composer. Sadly, she passed away in September 2013. It emerged that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was an active member of Henry Cow and she chose not to disclose this diagnosis to anybody because she apparently thought that it would affect the way her music was perceived. She was a true artist, deeply committed and unreservedly respected by her peers. Here is a wonderful clip (though sadly brief) of this wonderful artist with the Mike Westbrook Ensemble. Nobody could rock a bassoon quite like Ms. Cooper.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qp9KZvwOl9M
And here is Fred Firth’s ensemble, Gravity, performing a piece he wrote for Ms. Cooper a mere two days after her passing:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mIuaLo5Jdo0
Our world would be immeasurably poorer without the contributions of artists such as these.
