Intakt CD 071 (Double CD)
With both these records, Wilde Señoritas and Hexensabbat, the young pianist from Switzerland presented her first solo recordings, in 1977 and 1978 respectively: a firework of modern jazz piano music. The first solo records of a female European jazz pianist were listened to as a manifesto of free music and as a document of emancipation.
Wilde Señoritas and Hexensabbat count today, twenty-five years later, as classics of modern jazz music. A great female pianist can be heard on these recordings, mostly made live. Schweizer's technique was already developed, her influences and roots can be heard clearly. In a record review of Hexensabbat, the musician Lindsay Cooper emphasized back then that Irène Schweizer was experimental as well as warm and communicative qualities that still characterize the music of Irène Schweizer today.
The records Wilde Señoritas and Hexensabbat have been out of print for a good ten years. Intakt Records obtained the rights from the Berlin label FMP and is now re-releasing both records as a double CD.
The CD booklet documents the original record covers, contains photos from the Berlin photographer Dagmar Gebers from the live concerts and an extensive interview from Patrik Landolt with Irène Schweizer about the time of the awakening of European jazz and the development of Irène Schweizer¹s piano music.
CATALOGUE IRÈNE SCHWEIZER
www.intaktrec.ch/images/363_Schweizer-katalog21.pdf
REVIEWS
This newly issued 2-CD set by the great Swiss modern/free-jazz pianist Irène Schweizer represents the original 1977 (Wilde Senoritas ) and 1979 (Hexensabbat)-FMP-LPs. Also included is Patrik Landolt's recent interview with a pianist who has released a significant body of work for this wonderful Switzerland-based record label. Ms Schweizer injects rhythmic elements into an all-embracing scope of manipulations, such as jagged free-style chord clusters and multifarious harmonic structures. Nonetheless, she's a modern jazz treasure who deserves a bit more recognition here in the States.
Glen Astarita, All About Jazz, USA, February 2003
Strong Music
Schweizer is one of the most exciting pianists on the free-jazz scene, and the reissue of these two, mostly live, sessions from 1976 and '77 show her roots were initially influenced by Cecil Taylor and the South African expatriate Abdullah Ibrahim. The longer performances from Wilde Señoritas build intuitive, energetic, spontaneous forms, as she excavates motifs from the bottom end of the piano, then cascades upward with flurries and leap-frogging intervals, punctuated by splashy chords and throbbing bass notes. Hexensabbat (or Witches Sabbath) is a program of shorter, concentrated pieces, displaying more conceptual variety--on the title tune she attacks the piano strings with sticks and cymbals; «Rapunzel…Rapunzel …!» consists of florid passagework in search of a romantic theme, with abrupt rhythmic interruptions and ending with a satire of ragtime; and «Choix Mixed» has a claustrophobic feel of ominous motifs in a static environment. Short playing time, but strong music.
By Art Lange, Puls! Magazine, USA, Dez. 02