Henry Cow Vol. 10: DVD - Vevey 1976

With the advent of YouTube, there seems to be no end to footage available of legacy groups. And yet, curiously, there's literally nothing to be found of Henry Cow, which makes the tenth disc in The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set-an 80-minute, professionally shot DVD of Henry Cow from an August, 1976 performance in Vevey, Switzerland-all the more of a find, and the gem amongst gems [previously available only] in this box set. With a representative set list from the time-"Beautiful As the Moon-Terrible As an Army With Banner," divided by a free improv, "Living in the Heart of the Beast," "No More Songs," "March" and "Erk Gah," along with another lengthy improvisation-it's shot with the group live outdoors, literally playing on the grass, with so much instrumentation that even the camera's wide angle can't capture the entire group in one shot. While the cameras do capture everyone in the group-Born, Cooper, Cutler, Frith, Hodgkinson and Krause-Cutler's the one who commands the most attention, which will come as no surprise to anyone in attendance at his Art Bears Songbook performance with Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Zeena Parkins, Jewlia Eisenberg and Kristin Slipp at the 2008 Festival International de Musique Actuelle Victoriaville. It's almost unbelievable to watch Cutler navigate the staggering complexities of "Living in the Heart of the Beast" and "Erk Gah" with such apparent ease. That there's no music onstage, that the players move around their respective instruments so seamlessly, and that they manage to improvise together with such abandon while, at the same time, hitting every single cue without a misstep, hammers home what the music can only but suggest when listening to it. - AllAboutJazz. Com