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Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation

Composer Heiner (Brains on Fire) Stadler @ It’s Psychedelic Baby

February 23, 2012 by Howard Mandel

Heiner Stadler is a lesser-known but fascinating New York City-based composer who’s stretched

Heiner Stadler

the structures and dimensions of jazz with all-star productions including A Tribute to Monk and Bird and Brains on Fire (which I annotated for recent reissue). It’s Psycheledic Baby, the online magazine by Klemen Breznikar taglined “discover the unknown” has published an interview with Stadler — a Polish-born (’42) WWII refugee who heard a Sydney Bechet record when he was 13, got to NYC by boat in his 20s, broke but motivated. He says his composing has been as profoundly affected by John Lee Hooker as by Bach and Cage (and he’s produced recordings of them all). I wrote a few words of introduction to the interview.

Recorded from the late ’60s through late ’70s, Stadler’s pieces are often long and always multi-dimensional, even if his collaborative improvisers are just two (cf, Dee Dee Bridgewater’s virtuosic 20-minute “Love in the Middle of the Air” over only Reggie Workman’s bass). All his records have been released through his own  Labor Records (might call it a label-of-love) and there’s not a lot of samples online tbut I found one youtube clip.

 

Unfamiliar to me, evidently excerpted — but from what? — I emailed Heiner for identification. He wrote back:

This is indeed one of my pieces, an excerpt from “Out-Rock,” part of my Jazz Alchemy cycle. K7 Records, a German company, had requested a license for this tune on behalf of “Four tet / DJ Kicks” in conjunction with the release of the act’s CD and double LP under the same name/title. The CD version of Out-Rock with added electronics was shortened to 1:38; the version on the 2-LP set is identical to the one on the Alchemy CD, namely 8:40.

As for the trumpet player, this was the late Charles McGee (whose name I had always misspelled by inserting the “h” after the “G”). Charles was a dear friend of mine practically from the time I arrived in NY City.

It’s Psychedelic Baby, Heiner’s music,  jazz beyond “jazz.”

howardmandel.com

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  1. Alexandra Ivanova says

    February 24, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Fascinating track!

Howard Mandel

I'm a Chicago-born (and after 32 years in NYC, recently repatriated) writer, editor, author, arts reporter for National Public Radio, consultant and nascent videographer -- a veteran freelance journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere, consulting on media, publishing and jazz-related issues. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association, a non-profit membership organization devoted to using all media to disseminate news and views about all kinds of jazz.
My books are Future Jazz (Oxford U Press, 1999) and Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge, 2008). I was general editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues (Flame Tree 2005/Billboard Books 2006). Of course I'm working on something new. . . Read More…

About Jazz Beyond Jazz

What if there's more to jazz than you suppose? What if jazz demolishes suppositions and breaks all bounds? What if jazz - and the jazz beyond, behind, under and around jazz - could enrich your life? What if jazz is the subtle, insightful, stylish, … [Read More...]

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