Polly Bradfield
Master Sawer
free improvisation
Discography:- Solo Violin Improvisations 10/10
Polly Bradfield is an incredible talent, if completely reclusive. One of the most inspired artists of the twentieth century and among the most talented solo improvisers ever born if her single LP is to be believed, her influence may be small, but her influences are so varied and fantastic as to make the product she released a must-hear. She borrows from John Zorn (whom she met when she moved to New York, some time before recording her first LP and subsequently abandoning a crate full of copies of it in front of her apartment as she skipped town to go to California and have a family) principally, but to say she is in any way pigeonholed is to be completely dishonest. She also cites several giants of the 20th Century like Stravinsky, as well as the "Sacred Guitar and Violin Music of the Modern Aztecs" Folkways record featuring Native American festivities led by violins.
Her work is centered on her playing (sawing) of the violin, and her LP features a child sawing a tree for punniness. The music inside brings new meaning to the term, as the violin is seemingly plucked apart by a furious fit of playing that consists of extended cacophonies punctuated sublimely by silences before harrowing high screeches or low saws or mid-range plops and thuds force the sounds back into the listener's ears. Not for the faint of heart,
Solo Violin Improvisations stands on its own as an incredible Cageian statement, aesthetic surprise (her brand of improvisation is incredibly engaging and engrossing once settled), and historic testament to one of the great musicians who could have been.
Sample:
unavailable