Henry Kuntz has been intimately involved in free jazz and free improvisation for more than 20 years. From 1973 to 1979, he published the internationally known and acclaimed newsletter-review BELLS, a recognized authority in the field.

He has been creating and performing his own music on numerous instruments for the last 19 years and first appeared on record (playing tenor saxophone) on guitarist Henry Kaiser's Ice Death in 1977.

In 1979, he began his own record label, HUMMING BIRD RECORDS, and he has released 2 LPs and 16 cassette tapes of solo, group, and multi-tracked free improvisations.

HUMMING BIRDs Earth Series Cassettes presents indigenous music recorded by Henry in Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, and Bali (Indonesia). These musics, along with Native American and other world musics -- Henry has
made additional music and dance explorations to Ecuador, Nepal, Thailand, and Java and Sumatra (Indonesia) -- have very much affected his overall musical concept. Drawing from these experiences, Henry plays a number of instruments from other countries and cultures, adapting them for use in modern musical settings.

Jazz writer John Litweiler, in his book, The Freedom Principle, singles out Henry as one of a number of independent multi-instrumentalists who are extending free-form musical concepts begun by musicians of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) in Chicago in the 1960s and by the many free-wheeling English and European improvisors who burst on the scene in the 1970s.

Henry's recent multi-tracked recordings explore possibilities for new improvisational archetypes: radically
divergent and open forms realized with unusual instruments and unheard-of instrumental combinations.

One /  One & One
   Henry Kuntz (tenor saxophone, musette, flute)
   Don Marvel (electronics) (bass, gamelan)

This 2-cd set is actually two distinctly different projects.  The first disc features Kuntz solely in the company of his tenor saxophone.  The first Kuntz solo saxophone recording to be released in 15 years, continuing to advance the saxophone language but entirely different in scope and feeling from the earlier music.  Listeners are likely to be reminded of Roscoe Mitchell's recent, more contemplative work especially given Kuntz's penchant for comical touches.

The second disc features Kuntz along with Don Marvel, who uses a bevy of electronic devices. This is a first-time collaboration between these two artists.  The CD sets its course on a new direction in the aesthetics of music-making and marks the first time Kuntz has been featured in an exclusively electronic context.  There can be little doubt about the efficacy of electronics in improvised music after listening to this.

Highly recommended.

Disc One:  Ten tracks in 59:43 minutes
Disc Two:  Twelve tracks in 72:03 minutes

One Final Note Review

If you like this cd, you might also enjoy listening to:

Moss Becomes Silk (Henry Kuntz)

Branches (Northwoods Improvisors)

Chicago Solo (Evan Parker)

Places to Go (Jack Wright)

Pieces of Time (Houle, van der Schyff, Kang)

Wires and Wooden Boxes (Diaz-Infante and Forsyth)