Live in Prague and Washington

Album by Fred Frith and Chris Cutler

Live in Prague and Washington

Live album by

Chris Cutler and Fred Frith

Released| 1983 (1983)
Recorded| Prague, 25 May 1979
Washington, D.C., 20 December 1979
Genre| Experimental music, free improvisation
Length| 72:46 (CD release)
Label| Recommended (UK)
Chris Cutler and Fred Frith chronology
|  | Live in Prague and Washington
(1983)  | Live in Trondheim, Berlin & Limoges, Vol. 2
(1994)

|
|

Fred Frith chronology
| Cheap at Half the Price
(1983)  | Live in Prague and Washington
(1983)  | French Gigs
(1983)

|
|

Live in Prague and Washington (Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington on CD releases) is a live album of improvised experimental music by Chris Cutler and Fred Frith. It was recorded at the 8th Prague "Jazz Days" Festival in Prague in former Czechoslovakia on 25 May 1979, and at the DC Space in Washington, D.C., on 20 December 1979. The album was released by Recommended Records in 1983 on a 45 rpm 12" LP.[1][2][3][4][5] It was Frith and Cutler's first collaborative duo album.

Subscribers to the Live in Prague and Washington LP received a limited edition 7-inch single of a 1979 Cutler and Frith concert recorded in Limoges, France.[6][5] This recording was added to their next collaborative album, Live in Trondheim, Berlin & Limoges, Vol. 2 (1994).[7]

In 1990 Recommended Records re-issued Live in Prague and Washington on CD with a Cuttler and Frith Moscow concert added, and retitled Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington. The new recording was made at the Culture Palace S.P.Gorbunov in Moscow on 31 May 1989.[4]

## Reception

[edit]

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [8]
Babyblaue Seiten| [9]
Cadence| favourable[10]

In a review of the CD release of the album in the improvised jazz and blues magazine Cadence, Carl Baugher wrote that this type of music "truly defies categorization", and that while it has elements of free jazz and classical music structures, "Frith and Cutler demand to be evaluated on their own terms".[10] Baugher said that "Moscow" has moments that are "riveting" and others that are "distracted impersonal textures". He called "Prague" the album's "most interesting composition" in terms of structure and improvisation, adding that "tonality is hinted at but ... seldom used". Baugher described "Washington" as "strangely controlled and peaceful" compared to the other pieces.[10] Baugher declared Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington "an unqualified success", and stated that more CDs like this would "make the world of improvised music a more interesting place".[10]

In her 1990 book, Sonic Transports: New Frontiers in Our Music, Nicole V. Gagné wrote that the Prague concert credit "4500 Czechs: ambiance and opinions" is "no joke", as the audience contributes to the music. She said, "The murmuring undercurrent of voices, the whistling, clapping, and crying out, all affected the musicians and prompted several of the things they did."[11]

## Track listing

[edit]

All music by Chris Cutler and Fred Frith.

### 1983 LP release: Live in Prague and Washington

[edit]

Side INo.| Title| Length

|
|

1.| "Live in Prague (part 1)"|

Side IINo.| Title| Length

|
|

2.| "Live in Prague (cont.)"|
3.| "Washington"|

### 1990 CD release: Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington

[edit]

No.| Title| Length

|
|

1.| "Moscow"| 42:41
2.| "Prague"| 27:14
3.| "Washington"| 2:48

Sources: AllMusic,[8] Liner notes,[1][2] Discogs,[3][4] Fred Frith discography.[5]

## Personnel

[edit]

* Chris Cutler – drums, electrified drums, contact mics, telephone mouthpieces, jetsam
* Fred Frith – guitars, Vox Organ guitar, table guitars, adapted guitars, bass guitar, six-string bass guitar, violin, voice, flotsam
* 4500 Czechs (Prague concert) – ambiance, opinions[a]

Sources: Liner notes,[1][2] Discogs,[3][4] Fred Frith discography.[5]

### Sound and artwork

[edit]

* Moscow concert analogue mastering by Bill Sharp
* Prague concert recorded by Jiri Munzar, with live mix by E. M. Thomas
* Washington concert recorded by John Page
* Photography by Jiří Kučera, E. M. Thomas
* Cover design by E. M. Thomas

Sources: Liner notes,[1][2] Discogs.[3][4]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ At the Prague concert, microphones where placed in the auditorium which recorded audience reaction to the music.[1][2]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Recommended Records (1983). Live in Prague and Washington (LP liner notes). Chris Cutler and Fred Frith.
2. ^ a b c d e Recommended Records (1990). Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington (CD liner notes). Chris Cutler and Fred Frith.
3. ^ a b c d "Chris Cutler / Fred Frith – Live In Prague And Washington". Discogs. 1983. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
4. ^ a b c d e "Chris Cutler / Fred Frith – Live In Moscow, Prague & Washington". Discogs. 1990. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
5. ^ a b c d Ramond, Michel; Roussel, Patrice; Vuilleumier, Stephane. "Discography of Fred Frith". New York Downtown Scene and Other Miscellaneous Discographies. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
6. ^ "Chris Cutler And Fred Frith – Limoges". Discogs. 1983. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
7. ^ "Chris Cutler / Fred Frith – Live In Trondheim – Berlin – Limoges Vol. 2". Discogs. 1994. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
8. ^ a b Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington at AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
9. ^ "Chris Cutler/Fred Frith: Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington". Babyblaue Seiten (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2017.
10. ^ a b c d Baugher, Carl (August 1991). "Chris Cutler and Fred Frith, Live in Moscow, Prague and Washington". Cadence. Vol. 17, no. 8\. pp. 73–74\. ISSN 0162-6973.
11. ^ Gagné, Nicole V. (1990). Sonic Transports: New Frontiers in Our Music. De Falco Books. p. 112\. ISBN 978-0-9625145-0-0.

* v
* t
* e

Fred Frith

Studio albums|

* Guitar Solos
* Gravity
* Speechless
* Cheap at Half the Price
* Quartets
* Clearing
* Prints
* Eleventh Hour
* To Sail, to Sail
* Clearing Customs
* Guitar Solos / Fifty

| Music for Dance|

* The Technology of Tears
* Allies
* The Previous Evening
* Accidental
* The Happy End Problem
* Nowhere, Sideshow, Thin Air
* Field Days (The Amanda Loops)
* Propaganda

|

Music for Film|

* The Top of His Head
* Step Across the Border
* Middle of the Moment
* Eye to Ear
* Rivers and Tides
* Eye to Ear II
* Eye to Ear III

Composer only|

* Pacifica
* Freedom in Fragments
* Back to Life

Live albums|

* Live in Japan
* Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire
* Impur II
* Storytelling
* All Is Always Now – Live at The Stone
* Woodwork

| Composer only|

* Impur

|

Collaborations|

* With Friends Like These (with Henry Kaiser)
* Voice of America (with Bob Ostertag and Phil Minton)
* Live in Prague and Washington (with Chris Cutler)
* French Gigs (with Lol Coxhill)
* Who Needs Enemies? (with Kaiser)
* Nous Autres (with René Lussier)
* Attention Span (with Ostertag and John Zorn)
* Dropera (with Ferdinand Richard)
* Live Improvisations (with Tim Hodgkinson)
* Helter Skelter (with François-Michel Pesenti)
* Live in Trondheim, Berlin & Limoges, Vol. 2 (with Cutler)
* The Art of Memory (with Zorn)
* Traffic Continues (with Ensemble Modern)
* 2 Gentlemen in Verona (with Cutler)
* Dalaba Frith Glick Rieman Kihlstedt (with Lesli Dalaba, Eric Glick Rieman and Carla Kihlstedt)
* What Leave Behind (with Toychestra)
* 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5 (with Zorn)
* Touch the Sound (with Evelyn Glennie)
* The Compass, Log and Lead (with Kihlstedt and Stevie Wishart)
* Duo (Victoriaville) 2005 (with Anthony Braxton)
* Ironic Universe (with Janet Feder)
* The Stone: Issue Two (with Cutler)
* The Sugar Factory (with Glennie)
* The Art of Memory II (with Zorn)
* Still Urban (with ARTE Quartett)
* The Big Picture (with ARTE Quartett)
* Late Works (with Zorn)
* Angels on the Edge of Time (with Lindsay Cooper, Gianni Gebbia and Lars Hollmer)
* Cut Up the Border (with Nicolas Humbert and Marc Parisotto)
* Laying Demons to Rest (with Susana Santos Silva)

| Compilations|

* Friends & Enemies (with Kaiser)

|

Documentaries|

* Step Across the Border
* Touch the Sound (with Glennie)
* Act of God

Related|

* Fred Frith discography
* Fred Records
* Henry Cow
* Art Bears
* Massacre
* Skeleton Crew
* Keep the Dog
* Cosa Brava
* Fred Frith Trio
* Henry Now
* The Orckestra
* Duck and Cover
* French Frith Kaiser Thompson
* Death Ambient
* Fred Frith Guitar Quartet
* Maybe Monday
* Aksak Maboul
* Material
* Naked City

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Chris Cutler

Studio albums|

* Three Suite Piece (released 1996)

Live albums|

* Live in Prague and Washington (1979)
* Live in Trondheim, Berlin & Limoges, Vol. 2 (1979 & 1991)
* 2 Gentlemen in Verona (1999)
* The Stone: Issue Two (2006)

Collaborations|

* The Last Nightingale (1984) (with Lindsay Cooper, Tim Hodgkinson, Bill Gilonis and Robert Wyatt)

Related articles|

* File Under Popular
* Recommended Records / RēR Megacorp
* Henry Cow
* Art Bears
* Cassiber
* News from Babel
* Pere Ubu
* Henry Now
* The Orckestra
* Aksak Maboul
* Duck and Cover
* Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar
* p53
* The Science Group

* Category

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