The Abyssinians: Satta Massagana

This 1993 release, with a quartet of extra tracks, of the 1976 roots reggae classic is probably best known for the title track, which is one of the all-time great songs in the genre.  But this album is full of excellent tunes emphasizing the harmonies of the brothers Donald and Lynford Manning and Bernard Collins and such legendary musicians as the rhythm masters, drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare, along with "Horsemouth" Wallace, another great drummer, guitarists Mikey Chung and "Chinna" Smith. Chung's brother Geoffrey on keyboards and Tyrone Downie on that instrument, among others.

The combination of strong material, all of the pieces written by individual members of the trio except "Satta Massagana," which credits all of them, great playing and the singing of The Abyssinians make Satta Massagana an excellent album all the way through.  To this listener, there isn't a weak tune in the original ten tracks and the four additions to the original CD version, released on Heartbeat Records, are stellar, as well.

The CD was purchased when the edition first came out and it quickly became a favorite, even if The Abyssinians released just one follow-up record and then split up, though there was a reunion some two decades later, and they were not nearly as well-known broadly as Bob Marley and The Wailers, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, Culture and other famous roots reggae names.  "Satta Massagana" has been covered countless times and "Declaration of Rights" has also been remade many times.

Donald Manning is quoted extensively in the liner notes about the group's early days and struggles, including bootlegged versions of recordings, losing out on financial rewards and other aspects that are all too familiar.  He did say, though that "everywhere we go people tell us that they never see any other group like we" and that "we are unique doing our thing."  Ruefully, he added, "if we were constant what would really have gone down" because "no one could stop us."  With Satta Massagana, there was nothing to stop The Abyssinians from making one of the all-time greatest of reggae records.

Carlos Hernández Chávez and Los Trovadores: Songs of México (I)

This 1994 JVC World Sounds release has the note on the back tray that "this disc is perfect for novice Mexican music listeners" and that certainly applies to this one.  The trio of principal vocalist Carlos Hernández Chávez, who was a founder of Los Trovadores in 1947 and died in November 2024, second vocalist Jesús de la Rosa, who joined in 1976, and third vocalist Luis Miranda, who became part of the group two years before that, are excellent musicians and made a remarkable record.

There are a few pieces with which we novices are generally familiar, including "Cielito Lindo," "La Malagueña," and "Besame Mucho," but the album is filled with great songs like "La Zandunga," "La Bikina," "Perfidia," the humorous "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás," and the combination of "El Reloj" and "Amor."  It isn't just the great solo singing and harmonizing, but the acoustic guitar work is also excellent, beyond the very high quality of the songwriting.

The liner notes remark that "although the genre of the Mexican vocal trio enjoyed great popularity outside Mexico during the 1950s and 60s," but with rock becoming very popular, "it somewhat disappeared."  Yet, it continued, "although these songs retreated into the background, there has never been any danger that such a vocal tradition nurtured over many long years would ever disappear."  

Let us hope so, especially as in current circumstances with so much dehumanization of immigrants, a great many of them Mexican, taking place, because there is so much to admire and enjoy about Mexican culture, including its musical history and traditions.  This first edition of the Songs of México may have been geared toward novices like this blogger, but it is also a potent reminder of the beauty and quality of this genre of the vocal trio.

Muhal Richard Abrams: Levels and Degrees of Light

The music coming out of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) from the mid-1960s and onward was nothing short of spectacular.  While the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill might be some of the more recognizable names of those who emerged from the AACM's big tent of creativity, no one was more vital to the Association's existence and success than co-founder and pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams (1930-2017.)

The Chicago native had many creative interests, including the visual arts, while his musical imagination embraced not just jazz, but modern classical, including electronic music, but he was largely self-taught, finding traditional academic study not fulfilling enough.  In June and December 1967, not long after the establishment of the AACM, Abrams recorded his first album, Levels and Degrees of Light, released on the local independent Delmark label, which issued landmarks from by future Art Ensemble members Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell.

In the liners, Abrams was hesitant to explain the music, offering only that "I think the musicians involved tried to join their thoughts to mine" and the collaboration was "a kind of prayer" in which the session was "the capturing of a moment in that constant prayer."  He then obliquely stated that "what is here is what we are and what we hope to be."  To this listener, the title seems to indicate the varying shades of sound on the recording, involving quiet, contemplative passages, those building up to an incredible level of intensity, the voices of classically-trained singer Penelope Taylor and poet David Moore, and the timbres from the instrumentation.

This includes the leader on clarinet and piano; Braxton's alto; the tenor of Maurice McIntyre; Leroy Jenkins on violin; Gordon Emanuel's vibes; Charles Clark and Leonard Jones on bass; and drummer Thurman Barker.  It does sound as if everyone was totally in tune with Abrams' compositions and aesthetics.  "The Bird Song" is an astounding piece, evoking a sort of environmental calmness at the outset, including bird-like sounds, but including a stunning mass of roaring, rumbling and coruscating ensemble work towards its end.  The title track and "My Thoughts Are My Future—Now and Forever" are, however, also very compelling and reflective of the composer's remarkable range of ideas.

Muhal Richard Abrams was not nearly recorded enough, compared to the musicians and groups mentioned above, but he is a pivotal figure in the development of jazz and Black creative music for roughly a half century and future posts will highlight more of this master's work.

Joan Tower: Chamber and Solo Works

This recording, another excellent release by Composers Recordings Incorporated (CRI), which existed for about a half century from 1954 to 2003 to promote the work of modern classical music composers, is a great compendium of the work of Joan Tower (b. 1938), who is still with us and whose most recent performed piece was from about five years ago.

The album includes eight recordings spanning almost a decade from 1972 to 1981 and featuring the Da Capo Chamber Players, which the composer/pianist helped form in 1969 and which is still active, and the sextet Collage, as well as three soloists from the ensembles, clarinetist Laura Flax, violinist Joel Smirnoff and flautist Patricia Spencer, this latter still with Da Capo.  Tower performs with Da Capo on three pieces, "Amazon" and the two "Breakfast Rhythms."

Tower wrote in the liners that she was inspired by Stravinsky's ballet Petroushka and captivated by paired figure skating for "Petroushskates" and she noted that "the figure skating pairs became a whole company o skaters," or musicians, for what she calls "a sort of musical carnival on ice."  For "Wings," the composer envisioned a falcon soaring high in the sky without much movement before "the bird goes into elaborate flight patterns that loop around, diving downwards, gaining tremendous speeds."

The composer spent part of her childhood in Bolivia and credits her learning of that nation's music and playing percussion there for much of her approach to rhythm.  For "Amazon," the great South American river, with its "consistent background flow" and change in width and speed is reflected in the variations of the work, of which there is an orchestra version II.  "Platinum Spirals" is dedicated to her father, who as a  geologist and mineral engineer and the piece draws on platinum's flexibility and malleability in its score for the violin.

The instrumentation in "Breakfast Rhythms" and "Noon Dance" are the same and the second follows the other, with the second a comment on the ties between dance and chamber music, especially in following and leading.  The first was motivated by Beethoven's approach to contrasts in rhythm and texture, with an emphasis on patterns of pitch in the harmonies and melodies, as well as a focus on how the clarinet's "lyrical passages . . . lend at-home and away-from-home feelings."

Spencer's flute is spotlighted in "Hexachords," the title referring to the harmonic components of "a six-note unordered chromatic collection of pitches" where vibrato and rhythm in different registers "creates a counterpoint of tunes" to hold the listener's attention through five sections that Tower says "are most easily differentiated by a sense of either going nowhere or staying somewhere."  

The complexity of Tower's writing is both modern and, as another part of the notes suggest, still has "an accessible, tangible quality."  This listener is hardly well-tutored on the finer points of music, but it seems that the way she develops and works with harmony and rhythm and especially how she uses color with the instruments in the ensemble amply provides this quality.  This is compelling and immersive music that never fails to hold the attention and is beautifully played and well-recorded.

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska

This album was purchased new after its late September 1982 release and for a 17-year old who'd heard familiar Springsteen songs like "Hungry Heart," "Born to Run," and a raft of other popular songs on the radio, the experience of listening to this lo-fi and reflective recording was truly a bracing experience, especially after the follow-up, Born in the U.S.A., rocketed to massive sales in 1984.

Those were the only two Springsteen albums in the collection until recently when The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Born to Run and The River were acquired and a new appreciation for his music garnered.  Still, there's something distinctive about Nebraska that still makes it a favorite more than four decades later.  Simply put, it's the raw emotion and directness of the music and lyrics that reaches this blogger in a way his other recordings, great as they are, do not.  Moreover, it stood out amid the music that was produced during that period, when synthesizers and drum machines rose to prominence and Springsteen and his acoustic guitar were a total contrast.

It's hard to choose particular tunes as stand-outs because Nebraska feels like a unified suite of songs or something of a song cycle, though it certainly was not designed that way.  The title track is about a pair of teen serial killers and is haunting and unforgettable, while "Atlantic City" tells of a desperate man inviting his girlfriend to join him in the resort town (where the President lost a bundle in a failed casino project) as he contemplates working for the mob.  "Highway Patrolman" is a compelling tale of an officer who allows his troubled brother to escape after he chases him following another committed crime.

"My Father's House" is about a failed attempt at reconciliation between a father and son and, while dour, is very affecting and "Reason to Believe" ends the record with some glimmers of hope.  It bears remembering that American was in a long period of economic recession, even as Ronald Reagan's election two years prior was a conservative promise to renew the nation's financial prosperity.  Additionally, the fact that Springsteen recorded this on a basic four-track recorder in his bedroom had a profound influence on other musicians, even as he archived electric E Street Band renditions.

Nebraska was a bold statement, a gutsy move from a major rock star and, more importantly, an impressive artistic achievement.  Born in the U.S.A. is a great album and propelled Springsteen to the highest echelons of the music world and some of the songs were kin of its predecessor, but, for this listener, Nebraska is a more compelling recording, revealing, intensely immersive and quietly, but insistently penetrating and powerful.  In these times, it also seems very relevant and especially meaningful.

Iraq: The Maqams of Baghdad

Here is another stellar recording in the series issued by Ocora, the label of Radio France, featuring amazing music from around the world.  Recorded in the Iraqi capital and ancient city of immense historical importance in 1972, The Maqams of Baghdad, runs not too far over 50 minutes and features three compositions in this traditional style, including the Husseini, Hleilawi and Seigah, with the first and last lasting just over 20 minutes each and the middle about half that length.

The hypnotic performances by vocalist Yusuf Omar and the Al Tchaighi Al Baghdadi ensemble, including Abdallah Ali on the santur, Sha-ubi Ibrahim and Hassan Ali on djoze, Abdul Razzak Madjid on tabla, Kan'an Mohamed Salih and Dia' Mahmoud Ahmad on deff are just spectacular.  Important with any recordings of music from other lands, the liner notes by Professor Scheherazade Qassim Hassan, who taught at the University of Baghdad from 1967-1982, established that city's Center for Traditional Music, and later taught in London, Paris and Prague written nearly a quarter century later, are very information and enlightening.

Dr. Hassan wrote that the maqam vocal tradition likely dates back to as far back as the 8th century and, with deep connections to other parts of the Islamic world, given Baghdad's central location, necessarily evolved.  She added, as is the case throughout the world, that intensive modernization and Westernization, not to mention economic, political and social conflict, led to a dramatic loss of performers and a simplification of the form.  Moreover, she emphasized the fact that the maqam in Iraq, of which there were some 50 examples, was differentiated from the maqam of other Arab countries in that it specifically concerned vocalization.

These three pieces are remarkable and indicative of what often happens to the traditional music of countries around the world when conditions change dramatically.  In Iraq, Saddam Hussein took control of the nation seven years after his recording and the terrible war with Iran followed, during which Professor Hassan left for Europe.  Hussein's ouster by the United States in the Second Gulf War involved more turmoil in the nation and Middle Eastern politics is, of course, incredibly turbulent and dangerous currently.  This recording, however, is a reminder of the amazing musical history of this ancient society and its culture.

John Coltrane: Live in Japan

In July 1966, a year before his far-too-early death at age 40, John Coltrane and his quintet toured Japan amid a period of American turmoil.  The escalation of the Vietnam War, riots at Watts in Los Angeles the prior summer, the assassination of Malcolm X earlier in 1965, and the much else marked the period.  In jazz, a tumult was at hand, as well, as so-called "free" jazz arose to the consternation of critics and the horror of traditionalists, while the rise of rock, soul and R&B music were of great concern, as well.

For John Coltrane, who released his masterpiece, A Love Supreme, at the dawn of 1965 and who was one of the most popular jazz musician of his era, his relentless search for expression led him to move further away from more standard forms of harmony, rhythm and melody.  Later that year, he recorded the astounding Ascension, which confounded many fans, as well as critics, but which is a powerful testament to his current musical calling and evocative of Ornette Coleman's large-ensemble masterwork, Free Jazz, from five years earlier.

Towards the end of the year, Coltrane recorded Meditations, which may be seen as an extension of A Love Supreme, but in a far more intense, open and relentlessly searching manner, with the softer "Love" and "Serenity" contrasted with such searing performances as the awesome "The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost" and the excoriating "Consequences."  1965 was also the year when his famed Classic Quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones and bassist Jimmy Garrison was pushed to its limits and then dissolved.

Jones was the first to go, unable to accept the changes that affected his inimitable style, while Tyner was increasingly concerned, as well, about his place and departed not long after.  Garrison remained as the solid grounding force of what was expanding mightily in sound, thanks to the continued presence of Pharoah Sanders and his shrieking and keening saxophone playing juxtaposed to the leader's performances and the additions of Coltrane's wife, Alice, and her stunning exploratory piano work, very different from that of Tyner, and drummer Rashied Ali, whose work fit in extremely well with the new direction.

Recorded at a pair of Tokyo dates on 11 and 22 July, the four-disc Live in Japan  (only one disc of which was previously released in 1973 as a double LP) tests the limits of the listener on every level.  First, the shortest of the half-dozen pieces on three discs is 25 minutes with the longest approaching an hour.  Those used to hearing symphonies or Indian ragas, for example, may have no issue with this at all, but it is more the sonic openness and freedom that is, perhaps, the greater challenge.  As noted above, typical ideas of melodic expression, rhythmic underpinnings and harmony among the ensemble are deconstructed and refashioned.

The sheer intensity and power of these performances can be overwhelming, even though there are moments of calm and reflection, and coruscating solos, filled with microphonics and overtones, by Coltrane and Sanders are countered by the expansive, shimmering and swirling solos of Alice Coltrane.  Garrison, as always, holds down the bottom with precision and power and, for those who take the time to list, solos to open "Crescent" with innovation and invention.  Ali's endurance is truly remarkable as he makes incredible use of his kit through these lengthy and dense pieces and his solo on "Leo" is awesome.

The two versions of "Peace on Earth" are the most ballad-like and especially powerful given the war in Vietnam and the fact that it was just two decades after America's atomic bomb attacks on Japan.  "Leo" is especially intense and any expectation (as with 1966's Live at the Village Vanguard Again) that the signature "My Favorite Things" will be anything like the hit 1960 recorded version is soon dashed by the complete reworking of the standard.

This was purchased new in 1991 and memories are very clear of sitting on an apartment balcony and taking this in through several dedicated listening sessions.  Coltrane was a near-obsession, starting the prior year with, of course, the My Favorite Things record but including his freer work, and Live in Japan is perhaps the most daunting listening experience on multiple levels, but highly rewarding at the end of some four hours of among the most intense and immersive music out there (and "out there" is meant literally!)

Henryk Górecki: Miserere

Miserere means "have mercy" and, in these particularly troubled times of war, sectional strife, deportations, political assassinations, searing heatwaves as our planet warms, and much else, this recording of Henryk Górecki's choral masterpiece of that name seems particularly timely.  The work was composed nearly 45 years ago in response to a militia's violence against a Polish union during the Solidarity movement that began in 1980 and helped lead to the transfer of power from the Soviet-backed Communist government there nine years later.

As the liner notes observe, Górecki usually avoided political and social commentary in his work, but he quickly wrote the piece with a simple five-word text: "Lord our God, have mercy on us."  Because of conditions in Poland, the work was not performed until 1987.  It is also noted that the "architectural procedure" of "Miserere" is "very close to the canon at the beginning of [his] Third Symphony," which  was first performed in 1977 and became a worldwide sensation fifteen years later when Elektra Nonesuch, which issued this recording, released a version that sold more than a million copies.

This blogger attended a live performance of the Third Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl in 1993 and it was a powerful experience.  This would almost certainly be the same for "Miserere," which the notes state "demands concentration and thoughtful consideration" because it "is a heartfelt plea for peace and understanding from a composer who believes in the values of personal individuality and compassionate responsibility."

There are three other choral pieces on this 1994 recording, including Górecki's first unaccompanied choral work, "Euntes ibant et flebantm" with quotations from Psalms; "Wislo Moda, Wislo Szara," which is about the great Vistula River; and "Szeroka woda," also based on well-known Polish folk songs.  These flow naturally with "Miserere" in terms of the composer's fondness for slower tempos, modal approaches and deep interest in textures that included sustained notes.  The Chicago Symphony and Chicago Lyric Opera choruses and, for the Vistula work, the Lira Chamber Chorus, perform with great beauty and sensitivity and this recording has been playing a lot these days as more compassion and mercy are badly needed, for people and for our planet.