Biggi Vinkeloe / Barre Phillips / Ken Filiano / Peeter Uuskyla - The Forgotten Song (April 2021)

"What I can recall is that the extra double bass did not distract from Biggi’s usual tasteful use of space. There was also a buoyancy that is also present in this quartet that took the music into different realms." - Russell Summers, who was at the concert.

When Bill Dixon said each person is their own orchestra, it took me a bit to get my head around what he meant.

The access to so many timbres and registers the contemporary improviser has can be used to make space in the music without the use of silence. An improviser can re-orchestrate themselves in the moment thereby leaving an open space where they were before. The traditional concept of the drum set always had this extreme register change in it, which is why drummers like Peeter Uuskyla can access this idea with no problem.

It also explains why the addition of Ken Filiano opens up the trio futher rather than adding density. Both bassists work on each side of an imaginary "bass part", Alan Silva once talked about the bass being able to cover the full range of the string family, it always seemed to be that in a small "jazz group" format, we bassists role was actually the string section and not just the low end. Of course, each of these traditional ideas has all the abstractions of the various movements within improvised music piled on and around them.

Anyone interested in this will know the history of Barre and Ken and their vital importance to the instrument, so I won't recount it all here. While I have played with Ken and taken lessons from both bassists, Biggi has been an important comrade in the music for me for years. If I had to pick one insight in her playing, it would be the ability to find pitch and melodic material in the most complex timbre combinations. She might be working with pitch, but it is not imposed or expected that her fellow improvisers do the same, it is similar to the way diverse pianists like Cecil Taylor, Georg Graewe, Fred Van Hove & John Tilbury are able to work in harmonic material from the keyboard into similarly texturally complex situations without having to get under the hood of the piano.

I think this gets back to an interesting concept in improvised music guitarist Sandy Ewen calls real vs. imagined sounds: The improviser tends to play "real" sounds based on exactly what they are as opposed to an imagined ideal. Pitch comes into play as well, a pitch played by one of the basses might be a harmony with a non-tempered pitch from drum set. You end up with a multidimensional tuning system that ultimately bridges the overtone series to western tempered tuning with many stops along the way! Damon Smith, St. Louis, MO

1. I Ere 12:40

2. II Saphéne 05:10

3. III Ode 25:29

4. IV Hoca 11:11

5. V Ithos 07:17

Live board recording (2-track DAT-cassette) by Simon Garber at Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Canada on July 1, 1999

Edit, transfer and mastering made in May, 2020 at Studio Fabriken, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Alto saxophone and flute: Biggi Vinkeloe

Double bass: Barre Phillips

Double bass: Ken Filiano

Drums: Peeter Uuskyla

Transfer, edit and mastering: Peeter Uuskyla and Michael Thorén

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Biggi Vinkeloe / Georg Wolf / Peeter Uuskyla - Mr Nefertiti (April 2021)

Recorded April 12, 1991 at Canastero Studio, Cologne and originally released January 1992 by Canastero Records

BIGGI VINKELOE är en ung fransk tjej som spelar altsax. GEORG WOLF en tysk basist och PEETER UUSKYLA en trumslagare från Kungälv som annars spelar med Bengt "Frippe" Nordström eller Cecil Taylor och nu flyttat till kontinenten, där nyfikenheten är större än här på ospelad musik. Ändå visar det sig nästan alltid att otänkbar musik blir en kick när den väl får möta folk. Trion saknar ackordinstrument, varför vi själva får skapa harmoni. Inte heller finns en melodi att nynna eller en jämn rytm att stampa.

Däremot ett överflöd av ovanliga ingredienser som oro, ängslighet och upptäckt. BIGGI VINKELOE blåser en pipande, slirande och ömtålig saxofon även när hon spelar starkt. Hennes tradition är amerikanerna Ornette Coleman och Jimmy Lyons, och det hörs att hon tvekar och letar sig långt bort från den vanliga machojazzen. Det blir en sned skönhet, där osäkra människor känner igen sig. Tyske GEORG WOLF spelar en nervös bas och svenske PEETER UUSKYLA ständigt oregelbunden rytm mest på de hårda trummorna, sällan på försonande cymbaler. Han bromsar och skjuter fart i korta vågor. Melodierna klagar och skaver, och man vet aldrig. Ibland driver bas och trummor rytmrn hårt och snabbt, samtidigt som VINKELOE blåser en långsam, nästan majestätisk melodi likt en psalm. I ena änden är musiken anspråkslös, i den andra storslagen. Det är en lättnad att få sin ängslighet gestaltad. INGMAR GLANZELIUS 1991

1. Mr Nefertiti 07:15

2. Psalm I 05:40

3. Singing Softly 06:47

4. Soft Rain 09:34

5. Le Petit Prince 05:22

6. Psalm II 03:07

7. Berliner Luft 05:10

8. Spaceway Messenger 06:42

9. Wee Sneezawee 05:05

10. Jump Up 02:34

11. Shakin Back 04:15

Alto saxophone and flute: Biggi Vinkeloe

Double bass: Georg Wolf

Drums and bells: Peeter Uuskyla

Compositions by Biggi Vinkeloe (1-7),

Peeter Uuskyla (8), Jimmy Lyons (9-11)

Recording engineer: Wolfgang Gerhard

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Biggi Vinkeloe / Barre Phillips / Peeter Uuskyla Trio - MBAT (April 2021)

1. Schnee Hat´s 08:48

2. Mbat 09:49

3. Fita 05:00

4. Nuit d´ êtê 08:49

5. Fenska 03:22

6. Fragments 11:35

7. Sri Lanka 08:58

8. Blue Wind 09:43

Recorded April 21, 1993 at Swedish Broadcasting Corporation Music Production Umeå, Sweden. LJ Records originally relesased the album 1994.

Alto sax, flute: Biggi Vinkeloe

Double bass: Barre Phillips

Drums, percussion and original cover design: Peeter Uuskyla

Recording engineer: Bo Andersin

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Vinkeloe | Smith | Nordeson - Elegans (BALANCE POINT ACOUSTICS 2018)

This trio has all of the quality of Vinkeloe's well-known trio recordings with Barre Phillips or the late Peter Kowald (both with drummer Peeter Uuskyla), but due to Smith's very original playing, and Nordeson's exciting performances on drums and vibraphone, the trio takes on a character of its own. Of course, Vinkeloe's playing is as stellar as ever.

According to double-bassist and occasional Biggi Vinkeloe collaborator Barre Phillips, “The music of Biggi Vinkeloe, with her beautiful melodies, instrumental tone and lush phrasing, the delicate, tasteful rhythmic offerings and harmonic richness of Kjell Nordeson plus the warm depth and microtonal colorings of Damon Smith all add up to a very enjoyable recording.” 

According to Marc Medwin of the Bagatellen web site, “I chose a late evening to audition this latest Nuscope offering for the first time, and now it never sounds quite right during the day. The duo and trio explorations exist, by and large, in afterglow, in the calm but magical world of overtone and shadow I associate with moonlight. The music is not reticent—far from it! It ebbs and flows with the quiet certainty of expectation, making the occasional moments of more extreme light and darkness more vivid. 

The opening to “Kinkajou” is one such instance; Smith’s puckish arco scoops and Nordeson’s percussive twitters giving rise to one of the disc’s most overtly dramatic exchanges. Vinkeloe, far from drawn into the serio-comic fray, exudes long-toned admonishments, she and Smith seeming to have swapped roles to engage in some beautifully orchestral interplay. Her flute work on “Parish”, on the other end of the spectrum, sounds an “Oriental” clarion call amidst ominous rumbles and microtonal clusters, Smith’s shredding moans and sighs sounding like the remnants of some butchered coral. Indeed, it’s hard to tell where bass ends and percussion begins before an uneasy calm is eventually restored. 

These are moments of obviously polarized unrest though, and much of the disc’s reflectivity can be gauged from the title track. What might be a military cadence, if Nordeson chose to engage stereotype, pervades the texture, his drum work a series of loosely defined in-tempo patterns that always seem to break down at the last moment. Vinkeloe and Smith dodge and weave, emerging repeatedly from Nordeson’s fractured structures only to be shoved, gently, in another direction. 

Most beguiling though, bespeaking midnight, is “Today, the sun is Blue”, a gorgeously contrapuntal Smith/Vinkeloe duet; the silence surrounding each gesture is magical, each phrase leads ineluctably into the next, maintaining a perfect but fragile blend of sound and silence, a recipe for disaster in the wrong hands. 

Many of the quieter moments here are so successful because the recording is absolutely first-rate. Nordeson’s subtle vibraphone is captured in a way that forms a perfect stereophonic contrast to the other players’ more sharply defined presences. The disc is a credit to Nuscope, whose output continues to be of the highest quality, and to this fine trio, from whom I hope to hear a lot more.” 

This disc is a stunning collection of duos and trios that is certain to have much lasting value for fans of both free jazz and free improvisation. The release features an 8-page booklet with liner notes from the great bassist Barre Phillips, and exciting new art from artist Caio Fonseca.

1. Today the Sun is Blue 03:21

2. Nattens 04:41

3. Elegans 07:23

4. Au petit Matin 02:50

5. Joilesse 03:35

6. Dwarswind 05:23

7. Separation 02:02

8. Lucidity 02:03

9. Parish 02:45

10. Chiche 03:19

11. Kinkajou 04:16

12. Carmin Fragile 04:56

13. Luer Bas Rouge 03:14

14. At the End of the Rainbow 05:15

Alto Saxophone, Flute – Biggi Vinkeloe

Artwork [Cover Art] – Caio Fonseca

Co-producer – Damon Smith, Russell Summers

Composed By – Biggi Vinkeloe, Damon Smith, Kjell Nordeson

Double Bass – Damon Smith

Drums, Vibraphone – Kjell Nordeson

Executive-Producer, Design [Graphic Designer] – Russell Summers

Liner Notes – Barre Phillips, Russell Summers

Mastered By – Alan Bise

Photography By [Biggi Vinkeloe] – Kristen Lidell

Photography By [Damon Smith and Kjell Nordeson] – Katherine J. Gin

Recorded By, Mixed By – Scott R. Looney

Recorded in Oakland, California on February 5, 2005 at 1510 Studios.

Mixed in Oakland, California on September 13, 2005 at 1510 Studios.

Mastered in Cleveland, Ohio on October 25, 2005 at the Cleveland Institute of Music.