Originally released on the Disques Vogue label in 1966, the album has been restored and remastered from Barney Wilen’s personal copy. Since the release of his first record, Tilt, for Vogue in 1957, Wilen had established himself as the leading tenor player in France, but by the mid 60s he was branching out and exploring freer areas of jazz. This is reflected here.
Wilen and photographer Jean Larivière worked together on photos and artwork with the intention to create a film with a storyline and characters developed by Larivière, although this never materialised at the time. Like his other film work, including the earlier soundtrack to Lift To The Scaffold with Miles Davis, and his later music about racing driver Lorenzo Bandini, Wilen and his musicians respond and improvise to imagery.
Most of these short tracks, concerning signs of the Zodiac, are medium tempo, Wilen accompanied by bass and drums, with Carl Heinz Berger alternating between piano and vibes. There are slower numbers, notably Capricorn (with Berger’s vibes moving the piece along, Wilen lying back) and the atmospheric Cancer, featuring Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark’s bass, as well as more uptempo pieces: the urgent Verseau, Jacques Thollot’s drum-led Sagittaire and the Coltranesque Lion.
Some tracks move toward greater abstraction: Balance, Vierge and Bélier, on which Wilen carves a melody that develops into a brief free collective improvisation. On other occasions Wilen’s tenor becomes more expansive, as on Gémeaux (Gemini), appropriately double tracked for the twins, with Jenny-Clark’s bass varying the extent of attack, and on Taureau, a bigger booming sound reflecting the potential power of a bull whilst drums explode.
This is a timely reminder of a largely neglected figure who wasn’t afraid to use freer and spontaneous elements with the more established forms of the music in which he excelled.
Discography
Poissons; Verseau; Capricorne; Sagittaire; Scorpion; Balance; Vierge; Lion; Cancer; Gémeaux; Taureau; Bélier (32.50)
Wilen (ts); Carl Heinz Berger (p, vib); Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark (b); Jacques Thollot (d). Paris, 1966.
We Are Busy Bodies WABB-118
