Kowald, Peter / William Parker – “Victoriaville Tape, the ” – [Victo]

Max Level   1/7/2006   CD, Jazz

Improvised duets by arguably the two most important avant-jazz bassists of the last 20 years. Recorded live at a Montreal music festival in 2002, this CD is dedicated to Kowald, who passed away a few months after this performance. The pieces here include the full spectrum of sounds one can make on a contrabass, short of actually damaging the thing. Fingering, plucking, bowing, gently whacking the instrument with the bow, string-rattle, it’s all here. Both players stay busy and the torrent of sound is pretty much non-stop. Tracks 1 and 2 run together, totaling nearly an hour of incredible bass virtuosity. Exciting (though a bit exhausting) material.