Rabble Without a Cause, December 18: the Eric Stach story
Erich Stach was the leader of the legendary London Experimental Jazz Quartet and went on to have a full career of playing free jazz, both in Canada and the USA.
Eric Stach, 2014
Eric Stach started his free jazz playing in London, Ontario in the late 1960s. He was the leader of the London Experimental Jazz Quartet. I featured the quartet on a show back in April, on the 50th anniversary of their record, Invisible Roots.
On this show we will hear Eric Stach with his subsequent groups, Autonomous Disarrangements and the Eric Stach Free Music Unit, as well as two duo performances. Here’s a version of the Free Music Unit, recorded in 1983.
We will be hearing a track recorded in 2010 from their album, Thin Air.
We will also hear Erich Stach in a live recording from 2000, with the German bass player, Peter Kowald. Here’s a live solo from Peter Kowald.
The show will end with an excerpt of a 44 minute concert with Doug Innis, recorded in London, Ontario, in 2000. The full performance is available here.
You can listen live in Ottawa on Wednesday December 18 at 11 p.m., or through online streaming at CKCUFM.com. The show will also be available for on demand streaming.
Wow, there's a name I haven't heard in almost 50 years! I was one of the organizers of the London Jazz Society at UWO back in the mid-70s and we presented Erich a couple of times! I still have his LP from those days but always wondered what ever happened to him after I left London to move to Vancouver in 1979. thanks for the update .. Nou Dadoun