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Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation

Electroacoustic improv, coming or going? (Herb Deutsch, RIP; synths forever?)

December 29, 2022 by Howard Mandel

As the year ends/begins, I’m thinking electroacoustic music is a wave of the future. But maybe it’s been superseded by other synth-based genres — synth-pop, EDM, soundtracks a lá Stranger Things. Is Prophet, the just released 1986 weird-sounds bonanza from Sun Ra with his Arkestra exploiting the then new, polyphonic and programmable Prophet-5 synth, timeless or passé?

Herb Deutsch (glasses) with Robert Moog and his synthesizer

In February, I saluted Herb Deutsch, co-inventor of the Moog synthesizer, on his 90th birthday. Deutsch died on December 9, with synthesizers ever more present in music creation of all sorts, and a notable if slow trend towards electro-acoustic improvising ensembles, which he pioneered. Is the trend taking hold? Or a thing mostly of the past?

As I wrote in February:

[Deutsch’s] recordings collected on From Moog to Mac sort of a best-of, with “Jazz Images, a Worksong and Blues,” (1965 — credited as the first composition for a Moog) featuring bluesy piano and (overdubbed?) horn intersected interwoven with thick and thin electronic lines, unnaturally long fades, whirling sirens, white noise, delays and maybe backward tape. A Christmas Carol (1963) his prescient mix of found sounds, spoken word and haunting ambiance, was a contemporaneous response to the Alabama church bombing that killed four young girls and also drew profound comment from James Baldwin, John Coltrane and Dr. Martin Luther King. Deutsch’s composition still has power . . .

To celebrate that aspect of Deutsch’s work, here’s a view-list of mixed acoustic instruments and electronics, old and new, analog or digital, in-studio or live.

XXXX – Michael Wollny with Emile Parisien/Tim Lefebvre & Christian Lillinger

“The Prophet (abridged)” — by Sun Ra

“High Speed Chase” — from doo-bop — Miles Davis

“Patriots” — Zawinul Syndicate

from Streaming — Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis and Roscoe Mitchell

“Raindance” from Sextant, Herbie Hancock (with Dr. Patrick Gleeson)

Evan Parker ElectroAcoustic Ensemble

“Message” from Leave the City — Music Electronnica Viva

“OBA” from Human Music — Jon Appleton and Don Cherry

“Babel” from Avant-noir — Lisa Mezzacappa

“You Know, You Know” — Jan Hammer with Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McLaughlin)

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Filed Under: main Tagged With: "Rain Dance", "You Know, "You Know You Know", Avant-noir, Don Cherry, doo-bop, EDM, Electroacoustic improvisation, Evan Parker ElectroAcoustic Ensemble, George Lewis, Herb Deutsch, Herbie Hancock, High Speed Chase, Human Music, Jan Hammer, Joe Zawinul, Jon Appleton, Lisa Mezzacappa, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Michael Wollny, Miles Davis, Moog Synthesizer, Muhal Richard Abrams, Musica Elettronica viva, Roscoe Mitchell, Sextant, Streaming, Sun Ra, XXXX, Zawinul Syndicate

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…

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