tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33852873842907489132024-03-06T19:34:24.936-08:00AMERICAcophonyNo criticism, no reviews, no file sharing, just appreciation, on the basic premise that music is organized sound and from there comes a journey through one listener's library. Thanks for stopping in and hope you enjoy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger448125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-40349104732528140542023-11-03T16:13:00.001-07:002023-11-03T16:13:45.472-07:00Fred Tompkins: Curve Extended<p>A couple of weeks ago, I was doing some presentations for an Art Collectors program in Los Angeles for the lifelong learning Road Scholar/Elderhostel organization and briefly mentioned that Gordon Getty, son of the (in)famous oil tycoon and collector J. Paul Getty, is a classical music composer. During a break, one of the participants, Fred Tompkins, walked up and asked about this and then mentioned that he was a flutist and composer.</p><p>As we talked, I learned that Fred has had a long and interesting career working with jazz and classical elements in his work, including the composition of the song "Yes" on the <i>Poly-Currents</i> album by the late, great drummer Elvin Jones, best known for his work with John Coltrane. This is a record I've long enjoyed, so it was great to meet Fred, who is based in St. Louis which has an incredible jazz history as a Mississippi River crossroads for all kinds of music, and, briefly, talk about his work.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_pcd7kL8nNZWeUD8P9ckO1dFSsWmxbpei8tp6LRfNDwB2_CrKjYiS8Yo32E7YNDOrDNyUUvOANVwGzhrnctvcT8shSzU0pj2qDobWrFzPcsf0kbWCm5-cDq9BmAxXdD6cxFDyIhYEk_23Z_f7ZgXlGWyAHZNGta26_JG8p-LnOeZSCciJaMWAxf5jSA2s/s802/20231103_160909%20(002).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="798" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_pcd7kL8nNZWeUD8P9ckO1dFSsWmxbpei8tp6LRfNDwB2_CrKjYiS8Yo32E7YNDOrDNyUUvOANVwGzhrnctvcT8shSzU0pj2qDobWrFzPcsf0kbWCm5-cDq9BmAxXdD6cxFDyIhYEk_23Z_f7ZgXlGWyAHZNGta26_JG8p-LnOeZSCciJaMWAxf5jSA2s/w398-h400/20231103_160909%20(002).jpg" width="398" /></a></div><p>That led me to purchase his 2006 recording, <i>Curve Extended</i>, which is a fascinating mixture of textures through varied instrumentation and small group combinations, as well as having notated and improvised components. Among the more interesting pieces is the title track, for which Tompkins wrote that it "employs the use of multiphonics" as being "in the real of new techniques," through the simultaneous playing of a series of notes.</p><p>The two "Con Moto"<i> </i>pieces are also notable for his use of an E-mu sampler, while the last two works, "Coming Together" and "La America" feature the poems and readings of them by Michael Castro an contributions by Debby Lennon on the first of these. Excellent work is provided on guitar by Dave Black, drums by Charlie Dent (NOT to be confused with the Pennsylvania politician), and soprano sax by Paul DeMarinis.</p><p>I'm always about supporting under-recognized and less-appreciated musicians of all kinds and those with an interest in jazz and classical connections should definitely check out Fred Tompkins and his very interesting work.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-58538326832004290842023-10-31T21:10:00.001-07:002023-10-31T21:10:08.865-07:00Harriet Tubman: The Terror End of Beauty<p>Following the great Oceans And, comprised of Aurora Nealand, Hank Roberts and Tim Berne at last week's double bill at Zebulon in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles was the phenomenal power trio, Harriet Tubman. The group includes guitarist Brandon Ross, who I knew from his work with Henry Threadgill, starting thirty years ago with the phenomenal <i>Too Much Sugar for a Dime</i> by the Very Very Circus group and on several subsequent albums through the early 2000s; Melvin Gibbs, who stood out to me for his work with the incredible Sonny Sharrock on the <i>Seize the Rainbow</i> album (1987) and the <i>Live in New York</i> recording from two years later; and J.T. Lewis, whom I'd also heard on the Threadgill collective Make a Move (also featuring Ross) 1996 album, <i>Where's Your Cup</i>?</p><p>There was a huge contrast between the acoustic and contemplative work of Oceans And, which played one continuous piece during its approximately 50 minute set, and the bracing electric intensity of Harriet Tubman, which flexed its considerable muscle through the powerful work of Lewis cymbal-focused drumming, Gibbs' dexterous and deep bass work, and Ross' pedal-heavy explorations of the guitar. At two points in the show, Gibbs paid homage to two of their most admired influences and favorites of this blogger: Sharrock and the sublime Alice Coltrane.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsaZ3AnbBzTk8oEUpoLPz_qJp5AeiQyrcJsVGbzHT91YaLo6n6KVkNcKfXz8f2m_W97YTTEL7T4Da70CWmVOIV8gC0Acg4-QGBj6K7cxX4VsHyP6bUc-ZllYppB7eawmNh3BGPIo_oydTfJWgQfQZVgQD3UIdwB9fekjUcMOl-0gxoxydgA7sr82eBFOt/s1225/20231025_230312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1225" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsaZ3AnbBzTk8oEUpoLPz_qJp5AeiQyrcJsVGbzHT91YaLo6n6KVkNcKfXz8f2m_W97YTTEL7T4Da70CWmVOIV8gC0Acg4-QGBj6K7cxX4VsHyP6bUc-ZllYppB7eawmNh3BGPIo_oydTfJWgQfQZVgQD3UIdwB9fekjUcMOl-0gxoxydgA7sr82eBFOt/w400-h266/20231025_230312.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>This band could do it all—nimble jazz, reggae-inspired riddims, the heaviest of metal and far more—and they had many in the audience dancing, headbanging, nodding and demonstrating engagement in all kinds of physical ways, not to mention hearty applause that grew louder as the set progressed. By the time they finished, including a guest appearance by a remarkable vocalist who stepped on the stage from the audience and scatted, screamed, crooned and evoked in many ways, the crowd was roaring with appreciation.</p><p><i>The Terror End of Beauty</i> is the fourth of five Harriet Tubman albums and the 2018 release features several songs rendered at the concert including "The Green Book Blues" and the title track (which evokes Sharrock in composition and Ross' playing), both show highlights. The album captures the range of the band's tonal palette, including contemplative guitar treatments by Ross, the deep-end playing of Gibbs and the solid percussion work by Lewis. It is very well recorded, mixed and engineered and is the product of a band the other recordings of which I definitely need to explore more.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgegw4hukYviwmBJD6Kl-dxAmbhID4ztm_ldPQ9w2iYS9bsh4rJYt-qGfWpFufzTSXH45-0OHhiCcuLPzSIqdEGJj0m7-HgmspGqVoAG23f9a60bnBxjTf3RzTXXq050P4LXaamP1xv_xW5lo9_-dz98cggQ3BKrSSHlHk8ObIoxyUbUm2sdNtXKoQxZSjG/s971/20231026_160400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="971" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgegw4hukYviwmBJD6Kl-dxAmbhID4ztm_ldPQ9w2iYS9bsh4rJYt-qGfWpFufzTSXH45-0OHhiCcuLPzSIqdEGJj0m7-HgmspGqVoAG23f9a60bnBxjTf3RzTXXq050P4LXaamP1xv_xW5lo9_-dz98cggQ3BKrSSHlHk8ObIoxyUbUm2sdNtXKoQxZSjG/w400-h364/20231026_160400.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The live show, though, demonstrated that Harriet Tubman is a trio that needs to be experienced live to be fully appreciated as the group takes their studio work and applies a much greater level of power, intensity and drive to move an audience to the types of reactions seen at last week's concert. It would be very interesting to hear the band recorded live and to compare that with the studio work and I would love to see them again!</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-55773621791711136822023-10-26T16:19:00.000-07:002023-10-26T16:19:03.932-07:00Tim Berne/Hank Roberts/Aurora Nealand: Oceans And<p>After 32 years of following an incredible array of immensely creative and intensely restless musical explorations from the amazing Tim Berne, I finally got to see him perform live last night at Zebulon in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles with long-time collaborator, cellist Hank Roberts, and accordionist, clarinetist and vocalist Aurora Nealand under the banner of Oceans And.</p><p>The concert was one extended piece featuring the remarkable interplay between these three master musicians and it was striking to hear the tonal relationships between Roberts and Nealand, especially when he was playing arco, with Berne demonstrating his usual stunning excursions on his alto. To see all three listening intently, eyes closed, as the performance unfolded was interesting to observe as well as to hear what they offered up.</p><p>Often, Roberts would turn to playing the cello pizzicato, as well as tapping and drumming on his instrument, sometimes with breathtaking variety. Nealand made the most of the accordion in terms of her solos and accompaniment, including as a drone. The interplay between these two was often staggering as they provided an underlayment to Berne's playing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW5r8bj6pSaDMQr2Z3jSrhgV3qdhOb67UogDNAKhWWClt1th1izxHbrvhJxJkZkt2QflBEQVdJahlN0N1-CS5MBL-WEmy114TKxDyIk0mCGAJBMn1AwJYK0YxWg24Ec8GAnY5U4Zt_aGPEvPXYA8C8Ysqu8TsNJMThIvrKfWZh8KnOP2uuJF8ScW2WcjsU/s749/20231025_212152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="615" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW5r8bj6pSaDMQr2Z3jSrhgV3qdhOb67UogDNAKhWWClt1th1izxHbrvhJxJkZkt2QflBEQVdJahlN0N1-CS5MBL-WEmy114TKxDyIk0mCGAJBMn1AwJYK0YxWg24Ec8GAnY5U4Zt_aGPEvPXYA8C8Ysqu8TsNJMThIvrKfWZh8KnOP2uuJF8ScW2WcjsU/w329-h400/20231025_212152.jpg" width="329" /></a></div><p>There were long passages of quieter performance as well as those with a boiling intensity and it ebbed and flowed (perhaps this is where the ocean metaphor comes in?) and Berne's weaving in and out, sometimes with a plastic bottle inserted in the horn was often very powerful. So, too, were sections in which overtones were employed and the three instruments were so in sync that it sounded almost orchestral. Beautiful, mysterious, contemplative, unnerving—a wide range of emotions were expressed, including when Nealand offered wordless vocalizations that echoed what her bandmates were playing.</p><p>In many ways, the <i>Oceans And</i> album, released by the Swiss label Intakt in April, is what was heard in the concert, but longer and divided into a dozen tracks. All of the qualities and characteristics are there, but it doesn't really seem to matter that there are individual pieces and titles and listening to the recording, which is beautifully rendered, recorded, mixed and engineered, it felt like the breaks into the tunes didn't matter because the performance of this highly immersive music made it seem like time was being stretched.</p><p>After the playing stopped, a man in front of me commented that, if someone was looking to discover jazz, this was probably not the place to start. Perhaps—but Tim Berne's immense discography should be part of any primer even if a major recalibration is needed in terms of how to listen to music not observing standard conceptions of time, rhythm and harmony.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaAmyHYXzhEKsWXxuNb4AsYoOAhfgJmJ4BjOm8kClUyfxZiDcGTOf5WfS8yBSsJZt1fqdGNleT_Thlg2CQEitddN6ULotm-q18haLLOKojkl_TrB-Gkh5utd-DxaKdEunSgDLQYUSPXlUcYLONTlyzeGufnLltUFCPYZUUYyXgqJSY9jHSoptJ8R4rVfCq/s951/20231026_160317.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="951" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaAmyHYXzhEKsWXxuNb4AsYoOAhfgJmJ4BjOm8kClUyfxZiDcGTOf5WfS8yBSsJZt1fqdGNleT_Thlg2CQEitddN6ULotm-q18haLLOKojkl_TrB-Gkh5utd-DxaKdEunSgDLQYUSPXlUcYLONTlyzeGufnLltUFCPYZUUYyXgqJSY9jHSoptJ8R4rVfCq/w400-h359/20231026_160317.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The other act performing last night was the power trio Harriet Tubman, so the next post will feature that amazing group and its latest recording, <i>The Terror End of Beauty</i>.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-56666277836181787932023-10-18T10:57:00.002-07:002023-10-18T10:57:32.741-07:00Gloria Coates: String Quartet No. 9/Sonata for Violin Solo/Lyric Suite for Piano Trio<p>The great composer Gloria Coates died in Germany two months ago and we've lost another giant of contemporary classical music, whose work is deceptively simply, compelling and powerful. An enthusiast of glissando, the sliding between two notes up or down a scale, as well as a sparse though dramatic use of tone clusters and overtones, Coates created a large set of symphonies, as well as many smaller ensemble pieces that stretches time and draws you into sound worlds that are distinctive and highly immersive.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA4MWwDGybyNTYDZ0ThNAOvFkzjXIQWqzo907WJpeIBrGV39fhJ9AE0r9LYh6YEXbYxrd0PQPNDPD9X9n1yjNmiF5oF3BgUAz5Ht6jQ8lNt0UCiU0eEsVyqI78YaKPR8vh0gsD2AmmRceOOy-hA64rK3ZUvHAEg1DFWJtNDtl6b_xPovLMPuI1cy2Rwvj-/s759/Coates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="759" data-original-width="754" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA4MWwDGybyNTYDZ0ThNAOvFkzjXIQWqzo907WJpeIBrGV39fhJ9AE0r9LYh6YEXbYxrd0PQPNDPD9X9n1yjNmiF5oF3BgUAz5Ht6jQ8lNt0UCiU0eEsVyqI78YaKPR8vh0gsD2AmmRceOOy-hA64rK3ZUvHAEg1DFWJtNDtl6b_xPovLMPuI1cy2Rwvj-/w398-h400/Coates.jpg" width="398" /></a></div><p>Beautifully performed by the Kreutzer Quartet with Roderick Chadwick on the piano for the lyric suite, this Naxos release features the two-movement ninth string quartet, spanning 25 minutes and rich with contemplation and evocative in its emotional depth. Following is the 13-minute violin solo sonata in four short movements, which also maintains a deliberate pace and weight of the simple yet intense dissonance. Lastly, there is the 25-minute lyric suite, in which piano provides a dramatic change in texture and melodic expression that both contrast and complement the woodwind instruments.</p><p>A great American composer who spent more than a half-century in Berlin, Coates built an impressive canon of diverse works, though best known for her 15 symphonies, that set her apart as a master of economy and emotive expression. She left an amazing musical legacy, which, hopefully, will be more recognized as time goes on.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-10928883445117761362023-07-10T13:46:00.002-07:002023-07-10T13:46:38.580-07:00Peter Brötzmann Trio : For Adolphe Sax<p>Having just heard of the late June death of Peter Brötzmann, the "free jazz" titan whose uncompromising and often blistering music emerged from mid-1960s Germany and blazed a fiery, formidable path for some decades. it just seemed clear that this post should feature his debut trio record, <i>For Adolphe Sax</i> (inventor of that instrument class), recorded in June 1967 with bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Sven Ake Johansson and released on the leader's infant label, Brö and reissued on FMP (Free Music Production) Records, which has put out much of Brötzmann's output over the years.</p><p>To say that this music is bracing, blunt and bursting with blasts of sheer intensity and power seems like an understatement because it can't really be adequately described, only experienced. It is clear that Brötzmann was heavily influenced by the great Albert Ayler, whose incredible music has been featured on this blog before, but he also spoke of the environment of part of his childhood lived during World War II and then the postwar period and the desire for total musical freedom of expression. This is largely unrelenting in its focus on primal energy, excepting a brief respite on "Sanity," and there is a nearly 10-minute bonus track for the CD reissue called "Everything" that includes pianist Fred Van Hove and which was recorded by Radio Bremen.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkRsziyU7FP3-_qkztcscyydYe2O0LfO1ImTJB6XmX_GtbzTzJUe14usA5g9P-U7ul9yEXR4c2oNuiRiQNUuCfiVr3Aq4963AyrCKrdBbqxVrN6oZCvHTp3Yu7yYzxbEYPmD2E3eXx-B253DR8Q6lylwIPFQQ2T1dDnyVrqNjAGY4oxQNW4FvpYddDZ960/s909/20230710_125327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="909" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkRsziyU7FP3-_qkztcscyydYe2O0LfO1ImTJB6XmX_GtbzTzJUe14usA5g9P-U7ul9yEXR4c2oNuiRiQNUuCfiVr3Aq4963AyrCKrdBbqxVrN6oZCvHTp3Yu7yYzxbEYPmD2E3eXx-B253DR8Q6lylwIPFQQ2T1dDnyVrqNjAGY4oxQNW4FvpYddDZ960/w400-h395/20230710_125327.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Obviously, in the absence of virtually any structure, including an introduction, statement of a theme or melody, bridges, and restatement, not to mention the almost overpowering wall of sound generated, what holds the attention of this listener is that there is strong interplay here between the three musicians with Johannson displaying a strong command of dynamics and technique in polyrhythms in working with his colleagues and Kowald employing both arco/bowed and plucking techniques very effectively as the rhythm section undergirds Brötzmann's eager explorations. On the added piece, Van Hove adds a welcome variation in timbre, while also demonstrating his ability to use his Cecil Taylor-like accompaniment and soloing to great effect.</p><p>Understanding that this difficult music to listen to, it's always good to recall what Ayler and his brother Donald once suggested in an interview about the best way to hear what they were doing not long before <i>For Adolph Sax</i> was recorded and released: try to follow the sound, not the notes. Sometimes tracking what the rhythm section does can also be helpful in navigating the often extremely turbulent trip on which Brötzmann and his colleagues are leading the listener.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOK0PUVdCth89w6hqC66oCCJNiPYsoKJ69KwbBhfL9bUihwQcA_rYdpVam8Bzqw07JmwYp0mKkeB9Xz7Vu3ULOGs__Va8ViI0ABS33mP0pXuM2waVWA2DkSrObq49NXR_U-2kkLt_bxveQb9g_zzbx2c4lzcl7HaNMo9p3BJAke1mAQdMFL5Nrs1C3PDXo/s849/20230710_125418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="848" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOK0PUVdCth89w6hqC66oCCJNiPYsoKJ69KwbBhfL9bUihwQcA_rYdpVam8Bzqw07JmwYp0mKkeB9Xz7Vu3ULOGs__Va8ViI0ABS33mP0pXuM2waVWA2DkSrObq49NXR_U-2kkLt_bxveQb9g_zzbx2c4lzcl7HaNMo9p3BJAke1mAQdMFL5Nrs1C3PDXo/w400-h400/20230710_125418.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Lastly, it is recommended that anyone interested in this pivotal figure in jazz listen to some of his later work, including the Die Like a Dog Quartet, to hear how his music evolved over the decades—though this blogger is also going to go back now and sample some of the (barely) controlled chaos of Last Exit with Ronald Shannon Jackson (drums), Bill Laswell (electric bass) and Sonny Sharrock (guitar) to remember the greatness of Peter Brötzmann.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-24352451129529851212023-06-25T10:48:00.000-07:002023-06-25T10:48:31.199-07:00Scorn: Evanescence/Ellipsis<p>After the extreme speed, power and auditory intensity, not to mention the famous "blast beat," unleashed on the world by Napalm Death back in the late 1980s, drummer Mick Harris decided to make an abrupt change in direction by 1991. He was invited to join John Zorn and Bill Laswell with their PainKiller project, which has been covered in a couple of previous posts here, and this experience, along with his long-standing interest in electronic, dub and other music forms, led Harris and former ND band member, bassist/vocalist Nicholas Bullen, to form Scorn.</p><p>It is understandable that the pair thought to gradually shift and evolve their sound through the first two Earache Records albums, 1992's Vae Solis and the following year's Colossus, where, on the first recording especially, thanks to the guitar work of Justin Broadrick, traces of the grindcore sound where very much present. The second disc, though, pushed more into a dark, electronic sound world and the transition continued into 1994 and the third album.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1aOtNQkni2nmOmzp3h74rVjZ3o8Hc4uiemkiN3jk7GDfIzUkCcc8dptnwSVOoTRzaMQ16Y4M5Okf-EDoRLX5cJQyx5hhoRpvQ8rXMl0wxakwhUv5CsyTDr8HpM0EgiUKnUwqwWSHl6-_Csn_cWIe_Hn-Dq4wvBmZZfW-MP6IVfOGyha7GpYViZbiAABtZ/s864/20230625_103205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="850" data-original-width="864" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1aOtNQkni2nmOmzp3h74rVjZ3o8Hc4uiemkiN3jk7GDfIzUkCcc8dptnwSVOoTRzaMQ16Y4M5Okf-EDoRLX5cJQyx5hhoRpvQ8rXMl0wxakwhUv5CsyTDr8HpM0EgiUKnUwqwWSHl6-_Csn_cWIe_Hn-Dq4wvBmZZfW-MP6IVfOGyha7GpYViZbiAABtZ/w400-h394/20230625_103205.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Evanescence was perhaps the pinnacle of what Bullen thought could be done with the project, though there were apparently personal reasons for his exiting Scorn not long afterward. Whatever transpired, he and Harris left a remarkable recording, with the 63-minute album a unified work with all of its pieces well-sequenced and consistent from start to finish. A lot of labels get applied to this music—illbient, electronic, trip hop, dub, isolationist—but Scorn was in its own world at the time.</p><p>Bullen's bass playing harmonizes very well with the sampling and electronics, minimal guitar and Harris' drum programming, which is also extremely well done. The detached, monotone vocals may do more to engender the feeling of "isolationism," but, while many might view the record as dark (and there's plenty of reason to feel that way given Scorn's extensive catalog over the decades, especially when Harris took it solo with the next album, 1995's <i>Gyral</i>), it doesn't have that feel to this listener. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAWRN5WGxbdMUZM4_ly1SUgYb0_EXv_Bf7VQ8ZRNS1UH-EaHJVFKs0sv0CVDRpIVQcQ1HRvutx5I2h5owo6lDVDw16Pn4FbU57gqa4-j1940xrJKproXkfwVRPIoA2Zig5wphOY7zwdQmi3bMWej3V02Cq4v-zB-XRDZBPcc6NZ6EgVbYqznA4qcY5wEB/s878/20230625_104305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="878" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAWRN5WGxbdMUZM4_ly1SUgYb0_EXv_Bf7VQ8ZRNS1UH-EaHJVFKs0sv0CVDRpIVQcQ1HRvutx5I2h5owo6lDVDw16Pn4FbU57gqa4-j1940xrJKproXkfwVRPIoA2Zig5wphOY7zwdQmi3bMWej3V02Cq4v-zB-XRDZBPcc6NZ6EgVbYqznA4qcY5wEB/w400-h396/20230625_104305.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The success of Evanescence invited a remix album, <i>Ellipsis</i>, with contributions by such luminaries as Laswell, Meat Beat Manifesto, Robin Rimbaud/Scanner, and Autechre, and it is intriguing to hear the recordings back-to-back—to some, Ellipsis is better, though this blogger prefers to think of them as complementary and the latter as revealing different audio impressions of the original material. Scorn's sound necessarily changed when Harris continued with the project, with percussion taking center stage and, therefore, becoming much more minimalist and, yes, darker. </p><p>Fortunately, though he has put the brakes on a couple of times, Scorn is still with us, including albums in 2019 and 2021, while he has also, fortunately, also revived his amazing Lull project, as well. It's been a remarkable career and good to see that, despite many trials and tribulations in a tough profession, Mick Harris continues to put his indelible and individualistic stamp on some amazing electronic music.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-73021238188009186632023-06-24T09:56:00.000-07:002023-06-24T09:56:00.103-07:00John Coltrane: A Love Supreme, Live in Seattle<p>What an amazing circumstance it was when the Impulse! label released, in 2021, this astounding document that was long hidden in the possession of saxophonist and teacher Joe Brazil and which was one of the very few live recordings of John Coltrane's transcendent suite, <i>A Love Supreme</i>. Recorded on house equipment at The Penthouse club in Seattle on 2 October 1965, this music featured the master and his classic quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones, supplemented by bassist Donald Rafael Garrett, alto sax player Carlos Ward, and the great Pharoah Sanders, who departed this world last September.</p><p>After several years of working nearly exclusively with Garrison, Jones and Tyner and reaching the limits of what he felt could be done with modal jazz, Coltrane sought new ways of expression, with instrumentation, composition, improvisation, harmony and time and in other ways. Not long after this recording, Tyner and Jones left the band, uncomfortable with the new directions pursued by Coltrane, while Garrison remained until the leader's death untimely death from liver cancer at age 40 in July 1967.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiHQsyY2nohqinIRQVQ3PArJlevlNgVuepnj1BcjxBWV9l1Bvt8IIffPsiW56XOIVLWHC7Aww3d7qqDzADm1pM_EFMmtTCHlT4u_U-S7mLjNj0WpbznhbKxv8VjtVLMHGcbai7lpx89TZ-0pbWbf_JnPKAiZ09NMS6s5kjzNQiOlQgGAEbJVbFznoOk7xP/s853/20230624_095148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="853" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiHQsyY2nohqinIRQVQ3PArJlevlNgVuepnj1BcjxBWV9l1Bvt8IIffPsiW56XOIVLWHC7Aww3d7qqDzADm1pM_EFMmtTCHlT4u_U-S7mLjNj0WpbznhbKxv8VjtVLMHGcbai7lpx89TZ-0pbWbf_JnPKAiZ09NMS6s5kjzNQiOlQgGAEbJVbFznoOk7xP/w400-h398/20230624_095148.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Not surprisingly, whereas the studio version of this masterpiece, recorded in December 1964, was conceived and played with precision, power, passion and no filler, this version, more than the other live recording, from the Antibes Jazz Festival in France in late June 1965, is looser, more open and free, and often filled with explosive intensity unrivaled in jazz. There were, too, the growing contradictions within the expanded band, especially for Tyner, a staggering pianist, but whose lyrical playing, complex soloing and distinctive comping often seems lost or out-of-place in the maelstrom—his solo on the third part, "Pursuance," however, is outstanding. On the other hand, Garrison, the consummate accompanist, played well with Garrett and Jones, who often expressed frustration with the new manner of performance, more than keeps things moving with his great polyrhythmic playing for this unpredictable and fiery ensemble.</p><p>A lot has been said about Sanders and his often-abrasive and emotive style of playing, but he proved to be an excellent foil and complement, as well as an inspiration, to Coltrane, who was absorbing a good deal of "free jazz," most especially that of Albert Ayler (Trane made sure that Sanders and Ayler were signed to Impulse!). Ward has some fine moments, as well, settling in somewhere between Sanders and Coltrane in terms of style and approach. With respect to the leader, he was clearly inspired by new musicians and ways of writing and playing and making every effort to plunge forward fearlessly with records like <i>Ascension</i>, <i>Om</i>, and <i>Meditations</i>, while live recordings such as the ones in Seattle, Japan and the second Village Vanguard set show the full steam ahead approach that prevailed until the master died of liver cancer in 1967, at just age 40.</p><p>There was a lot of controversy about Coltrane's direction after 1964, but it's also understandable why he went where he did. To grow is to change and this push into freer music was the only way he could see to go. This end period was a world away from the hit version of <i>My Favorite Things</i> or his <i>Standards</i> album, but it is fascinating to follow him in those last years and this is a revelation for that era.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-26256672125418019332023-06-11T21:29:00.000-07:002023-06-11T21:29:03.575-07:00Japan: Nagauta <p>This is another incredible release on the Ocora label from Radio France and features four long pieces (<i>nagauta</i>), ranging from 12 to over 31 minutes, of pieces performed in the <i>Kabuki</i> theater, along with classical dance. Intense vocals accompanied by the <i>shamisen</i>, a three-stringed lute, and flutes along with three types of drums, provide a fascinating sound palette, though anyone who isn't attuned to the instrumental tunings and singing style, much less the length of the songs, may struggle with this music.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-mtjHan7yLf3_bjHVrixyGdwr_RVJuZ_16X_sEc7W-8ns9paJp9gT0BhthGYStAmtXNSw-bjI-n5CIoGc4ZzpF56DlGdcRsDLtVezMHkbxpm9XJzyu2JOXZcFdNS0NERyoDTQJZn2sJD0dbOulaVcX_EkHoFS4fj8EjXennJ7yIOChXMaN0J0O1aYg/s819/20230611_212701%20(002).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="819" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-mtjHan7yLf3_bjHVrixyGdwr_RVJuZ_16X_sEc7W-8ns9paJp9gT0BhthGYStAmtXNSw-bjI-n5CIoGc4ZzpF56DlGdcRsDLtVezMHkbxpm9XJzyu2JOXZcFdNS0NERyoDTQJZn2sJD0dbOulaVcX_EkHoFS4fj8EjXennJ7yIOChXMaN0J0O1aYg/w400-h399/20230611_212701%20(002).jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The Kineya Ensemble includes a quartet of vocalists and <i>shamisen</i> players, a flautist, and five drummers while the four works date from 1774, 1834, 1856 and 1933, with the first three dating to before Westernization became a priority in Japan to preserve its independence and prevent what happened to China at the hand of Western colonizers. The 1930s piece, composed as the country was heading into the military dictatorship that led to Japan's near-ruin in World War II, draws from classical tradition, but did not accompany dance or theatrical presentation.</p><p>For this listener, classical Japanese music is fascinating and mesmerizing and, among the many recordings heard from that country and tradition, this is among the most interesting. Kudos to Ocora for its issuing of this release in 1997 as part of its phenomenal roster of world music albums.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-5946984135566848342023-04-09T22:04:00.000-07:002023-04-09T22:04:18.119-07:00Iannis Xenakis: Chamber Music, 1955-1990<p>Of Greek ancestry, born in Romania, a resistance fighter in Greece who suffered a terrible injury to his face including the loss of an eye and an exile in France for over a half-century from the late 1940s until his death in 2001, Iannis Xenakis first became an architect working under the renowned Le Corbusier. It was not until he was in his Thirties that Xenakis became a composer and, when he did, he shook the so-called classical (serious) music world with his emphasis on mathematical modeling (not unlike Harry Partch and his monophony, Xenakis hearkened back to ancient Greek mathematical musical concepts from the likes of Pythagoras) and computer programming to create some of the most challenging and startling pieces one will ever hear. His "stochastic" approach involves, perhaps not unlike John Cage's use of the I-Ching, choosing notes randomly through the programming by computer.</p><p>For a listener, that challenge includes letting go of the idea that melody is essential to hearing music and for this untutored fan, the key is to take the advice of jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler and his trumpeter brother Donald and try to follow the sound not the notes, while also observing the absolute foundation of music conveyed by Edgard Varése, who suggested that it is simply "organized sound."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtn1NEr-TTXYcb7MCcllI62QL7wk6XBGQFapj4DPyEgXBsHTA1fR3igd34P5rFgQHDrDuK69EryBTGJ6WS8z4HmIixYNaQw0gcHkIxo90-nAjJvWkIWMSacQ5EcXDomDJdIXGDkX8gwF2PMTuZkLEomOLvytszsMW3SMguQ9GEpBakdtD8YI-MBzkqQ/s840/20230409_215605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="807" data-original-width="840" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtn1NEr-TTXYcb7MCcllI62QL7wk6XBGQFapj4DPyEgXBsHTA1fR3igd34P5rFgQHDrDuK69EryBTGJ6WS8z4HmIixYNaQw0gcHkIxo90-nAjJvWkIWMSacQ5EcXDomDJdIXGDkX8gwF2PMTuZkLEomOLvytszsMW3SMguQ9GEpBakdtD8YI-MBzkqQ/w400-h384/20230409_215605.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>This double-disc set issued in 1991 by the German public broadcasting entity, WDR, provides almost all of the composer's smaller ensemble work, and it is beautifully played by the Arditti String Quartet, formed by violinist Irvine Arditti and devoted to modern music as it approaches its 50th anniversary next year, and the late pianist Claude Helffer, also a resistance fighter in his native France during the war. Notes by Harry Halbreich explain Xenakis' approaches to music and math, the stochastic method of composition and explanations of the fifteen pieces.</p><p>Intense and complex as Xenakis' music can be, one of the great virtues of this set is that it provides a good deal of variety as there are the string quartet, including with piano, and string trio pieces, but also solo works for piano, violoncello, viola, and violin. Even if there are complicated processes like "arborescenses," dealing with melody in a new way; the "sieve," or a mathematical way to select notes from a random selection through computer programming; as well as using "non-octave scales," where scales repeat beyond an octave, letting the sound take you into a world of incredible dynamic range and deep exploration of pitch can be very rewarding and a true ear-opening experience.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-86068938116243522332023-04-04T19:25:00.003-07:002023-04-04T19:25:46.856-07:00Agents with False Memories<p>For over 45 years, Richard H. Kirk made some of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic music in the so-called "electronic" genre, beginning in his teens with the embryonic Cabaret Voltaire, experimenting with primitive sequencers, processers, synthesizers, drum machines and tape along with guitar, wind instruments, bass and other more traditional instruments. Over roughly twenty years, CV which originally included Christopher Watson, whose environmental recordings have been featured here, as well as Stephen Mallinder, who continues making great music today, evolved from harsh, uncompromising "industrial" sounds to more accessible recordings (including a brief major label period in the late 80s) to a final phase, in the first half of the Nineties, that was a balance between experimentation and accessibility.</p><p>After Mallinder moved to Australia by the mid-1990s, Kirk, who'd launched some great side projects like Sandoz and Sweet Exorcist, entered into an incredibly fertile period, including recordings under his own name and a dizzying array of aliases (Electronic Eye, Nitrogen, Orchestra Terrestrial, Dark Magus, Al-Jabr, Blacworld and a great many others that were generally one-offs for individual songs or on compilations like the fantastic <i>Step, Write, Run</i> double-disc of works under his Alphaphone label).</p><p>One of the more interesting of his releases during this era was 1996's <i>Agents with False Memories</i>, issued by Ash International, a label run by Mike Harding, co-owner, with Jon Wozencroft, of Touch, which put out many albums by Kirk and Watson. The single, 53-minute long track might be considered a close kin to "Project 80," the mind-blowing long-form piece from Cabaret Voltaire's <i>The Conversation </i>(1994) that was the last album until Kirk resurrected the name and released the very strong <i>Shadow of Fear</i> in 2020. In turn, they might well be descendants of his 1982 solo work, "Dead Relatives."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hWo6m3DpZMlWyErkhTAOzfrNWRMWdsYzJ3KVXBUr-2Xpk39Ir-FnxBy4k7O9OJq4zK1Fwub6bj9NHbnMbXTsCwiJmBXCFuUBudPt_EVnPFxUBdEoLdUZcbKyF7WOMQkljfzXGUJctAfwIQ08C3y9u0rbTw0nZBnbe7o_BnMHy3hRjUK15NRNaHy0gg/s1403/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1380" data-original-width="1403" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hWo6m3DpZMlWyErkhTAOzfrNWRMWdsYzJ3KVXBUr-2Xpk39Ir-FnxBy4k7O9OJq4zK1Fwub6bj9NHbnMbXTsCwiJmBXCFuUBudPt_EVnPFxUBdEoLdUZcbKyF7WOMQkljfzXGUJctAfwIQ08C3y9u0rbTw0nZBnbe7o_BnMHy3hRjUK15NRNaHy0gg/w400-h394/001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><i>Agents with False Memories</i> is a compelling wash of electronic programming and percussion accompanying a great many samples of found sounds, including an interview with Orson Welles, a visit to Kirk's hometown of Sheffield, England by an American evangelist calling forth the Holy Spirit, a quote from President George H.W. Bush, a discussion on the technical innovations of the racist 1915 film <i>The Birth of a Nation</i>, expositions by scientists and a great deal else. On the heels of "Project 80," the piece is a standout in a very long career with a great deal of diversity in it.</p><p>While Ash International's description referenced the album as a soundtrack for a film of the same name by Oregon-based Guy van Stratten, this was a little joke by the label and Kirk as van Stratten was the name of a Welles character from the 1955 film, <i>Mr. Arkadin</i>. Kirk was fascinated by Welles, as found, just with a couple of examples, Cabaret Voltaire's take on the theme from <i>A Touch of Evil</i> and Kirk's "Sons of Harry Lime" as rendered by Orchestra Terrestrial on his Intone label's <i>Unreleased Projects, Volume 3</i>.</p><p>Kirk's death in September 2021 at age 65 ended the incredible career of a phenomenally productive creator, who left, for those who enjoy his work, an amazing legacy spanning six decades. The exhaustive discography concluded, just months before his passing, with the final Cabaret Voltaire albums, <i>BN9Drone</i> and <i>Dekadrone</i>, that were further explorations in long-form music. For those with adventurous tastes in "electronic music," Kirk's many albums are worth pursuing and hearing, with <i>Agents with False Memories</i> a definite highlight.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-9030498690655060802023-03-02T21:38:00.003-08:002023-03-02T21:38:39.732-08:00Miles Davis Quintet: 1965-'68, The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings<p>Another jazz giant has left us with the death of the great saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. He, pianist Herbie Hancock, the incredible bassist Ron Carter and the phenomenal drummer Tony Williams worked with Davis for several years in the 1960s as what is often called Davis's "second great quintet." This followed 1950s group that included John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Jo Jones, after which, in the early Sixties, Davis worked extensively with pianist and composer Gil Evans as well as various members of small ensembles.</p><p>Carter and Williams linked up with Davis in 1963 and, while the leader badly wanted Shorter to join his band, a commitment with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, of which the saxophonist was musical director, meant that it was not until September 1964 that Shorter became part of the quintet, which previously included George Coleman and the avant-garde giant Sam Rivers.</p><p>Starting with <i>E.S.P. </i>and concluding with <i>Filles de Kilimajaro</i>, the five masters created works, live and in studio, that took the "modal" concept Miles developed previously and extended its possibilities in terms of song structure, the use of rhythm and in other ways and ended on the edge of fusion. While Williams deservedly received a great deal of attention for his revolutionary way of drumming, it is impossible to overstate the importance of Shorter in terms of his playing, but especially, his compositions.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-YhcenE9cIhAvyrbJKEFot6IcmyFvBcyUz29HWs8UqQCaeRJIviucWHcO3ZNDZ1qVjSQIWK71BHI24R7Lg2w8b6DNUF2VN-pKjdrGqv-_aQd5Qsx0L4FIHIzMXyeLKchUmHowbB5UHtlxkQ9JWdIW7YFClr12wlewec0AGqk7-M0mtdaTlFr40Dwu7g/s774/20230302_194251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="774" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-YhcenE9cIhAvyrbJKEFot6IcmyFvBcyUz29HWs8UqQCaeRJIviucWHcO3ZNDZ1qVjSQIWK71BHI24R7Lg2w8b6DNUF2VN-pKjdrGqv-_aQd5Qsx0L4FIHIzMXyeLKchUmHowbB5UHtlxkQ9JWdIW7YFClr12wlewec0AGqk7-M0mtdaTlFr40Dwu7g/w400-h351/20230302_194251.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>This box set moves chronologically through sessions that began in January 1965 in Columbia Records' Los Angeles studio and culminated in June 1968, with everything recorded since taking place at the label's main complex in New York. Seventeen pieces written by the saxophonist were taped during the sessions that yielded five albums and material appearing on four compilations, including such notable tunes as "Footprints," "Nefertiti," "E.S.P.," "Masqualero," "Orbits," and "Paraphernalia."</p><p>Shorter's soloing was always lyrical, never about showing off how fast he could play, and in service of the material and the band. His saxophone, naturally, was both a complement and a contrast to Davis' trumpet, as well as to Hancock's piano, but it's really more vital to think about the quintet as a true unit, united to realize the leader's vision while also expressing individual styles and playing off each other in what rrally seems to be a telepathic way.</p><p>Over the years, I thought about exploring Shorter's significant catalog of solo recordings, in addition to the fusion giant he co-founded, Weather Report. When it came out in 1997, I purchased his duet album with Hancock, <i>1+1</i>, but it may now be time to hear more of this important figure's work outside of the Davis quintet. First, though, it's time to dig deep into this box set to appreciate Shorter's work with that ensemble and may he rest in peace. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-75820279113407246902023-02-26T10:32:00.005-08:002023-02-26T10:32:53.361-08:00Ocora: The World of Traditional Music<p>This 6-disc box set is an incredible global tour of traditional music by the great Radio France label, Ocora. For anyone interested in so-called "world music," this is a veritable feast for the ears and everything here is worthwhile and well-performed and recorded.</p><p>The first disc "From Mali to Madagascar" covers sub-Saharan Africa, with selections from fifteen countries, so the range geographically and in terms of varied traditions is very impressive. Disc 2 is "From Morocco to Mongolia" and, while the coverage from North Africa to Mongolia seems unusual, the idea seems to follow the paths of Islamic movement as well as the Silk Road.</p><p>Disc 3 is of the music of the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. While the classical music of Northern India is well known, through Ravi Shankar, for example, and people may know the amazing Qawwali singing of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, there is much more to experience, including the Karnatic and other music of the southern part of India.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpp5fcpcj7YG74VmNf8PqEN4xS-vJxE7KlLoShHxnxfvIgrH6l1Sp6klTVIk4n-hk_oNvtGgZOC31mv20x15qW7kCPs5q1cfeV56KDVG55XzAKMX-twvVxGpvBW3e5nNbrZaFa_OsaTTsQegRMpadQFw-LYjuQh_0NDNn9hcnXT2bGo2m4UJoffRvuw/s932/Ocora.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="932" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpp5fcpcj7YG74VmNf8PqEN4xS-vJxE7KlLoShHxnxfvIgrH6l1Sp6klTVIk4n-hk_oNvtGgZOC31mv20x15qW7kCPs5q1cfeV56KDVG55XzAKMX-twvVxGpvBW3e5nNbrZaFa_OsaTTsQegRMpadQFw-LYjuQh_0NDNn9hcnXT2bGo2m4UJoffRvuw/w400-h400/Ocora.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The fourth disc, "From Laos to Japan" covers eastern Asia and some of the most interesting material, aside from somewhat better known Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean examples, comes from the music of Laos and Vietnam. Some of us who really are fascinated by the Gyuto tantra ritual performances know that many people may not find that particularly musical.</p><p>Disc 5 embraces European music, while the last is of the Americas. For someone from these parts of the world, the interest may be with the first four discs, as this was the case for this listener, but there are really some great performances on these discs, including from eastern Europe, Yiddish songs, Albania and other areas not generally as familiar as other areas with the fifth, while much of the South American music and that from the Caribbean is fantastic. </p><p>This set can be a little hard to find and is not inexpensive, but is well worth the money for those who have an interest in or want to explore traditional music from around the world. It is definitely a global tour well worth taking.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-59718813364366603612022-09-28T18:53:00.006-07:002022-09-28T18:53:55.936-07:00Pharoah Sanders: Tauhid<p>Another master musician has left us with the death of the great saxophonist Pharoah Sanders last Saturday at age 81. He was best known for his upper register screaming when he joined John Coltrane's band in 1965 and he definitely divided listeners who either hated the "shrill tones" or were enthralled by the sheer passion he generated.</p><p>Coltrane was obviously wanting a counterpoint to his own playing, which was becoming increasingly "avant garde" as he entered the last few years of his all-too-short life. In some ways, Sanders provided much the same role that Eric Dolphy had in his short tenure in 1961, though the groundswell of intense negative criticism that the amazing Dolphy faced was more muted because, by 1965, change was clearly coming.</p><p>Championed by Coltrane, Sanders was given a contract with Impulse! and he recorded a string of always-interesting albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s, even as they went into the far reaches of jazz at a time when the genre lost a great many listeners. Sanders' music changed, as to be expected, over subsequent years, but one of my all-time favorite albums was when uber-producer and bassist Bill Laswell brought in Sanders to play on the phenomenal Sonny Sharrock recording, <i>Ask the Ages</i> (1991), with the saxophonist playing with the searing passion not heard for a long time.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBiyrUk412J0qpTSc-S1CjOEO_wGLp0r2K9J29OeHzUpUQMglPZiKiBK0PHFgl9vI78UHfoNf9Kz7y_3YkuBXOG2D7t4v8vDsnorEleTt5mCQa1-pL-Vj4KXavmyvVVKqirlw6aYNQChwwvhsX9eIqJa26Sw1kG7IDpb3r6GV_scN7fzRGZD0VFUmCQ/s1412/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1376" data-original-width="1412" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBiyrUk412J0qpTSc-S1CjOEO_wGLp0r2K9J29OeHzUpUQMglPZiKiBK0PHFgl9vI78UHfoNf9Kz7y_3YkuBXOG2D7t4v8vDsnorEleTt5mCQa1-pL-Vj4KXavmyvVVKqirlw6aYNQChwwvhsX9eIqJa26Sw1kG7IDpb3r6GV_scN7fzRGZD0VFUmCQ/w400-h390/001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I had the opportunity to see Sanders play live in the Nineties at the original Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood and was really grateful that I had the chance to hear him. The featured album for this post is his first Impulse! set, <i>Tauhid</i>, recorded in November 1966 and released early the following year, not long before Coltrane's death.</p><p>It is, as all of Sanders' recordings were then, heavily spiritual and full of diversity in conception and playing, with the stunning "Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt," the brief but beautiful "Japan," (inspired by the 1966 tour of that nation by the Coltrane ensemble) and the remarkable three-part suite, "Aum," "Venus," and "Capricorn Rising." The musicians include Sharrock, in one of his first recordings before he left music and then was found by Laswell and his career resurrected in spectacular fashion; the sensitive and understated Dave Burrell on piano; the underappreciated Henry Grimes on bass; drummer Roger Blank; and percussionist Nat Bettis, whose colorations really help flesh out much of this recording.</p><p>We're seeing so many great musicians departing and, while this is always saddening, the consolation, of course, is that we can revisit the amazing work they produced and with the sublime Pharoah Sanders, there is so much to enjoy and appreciate. May he rest in peace!</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-76680617729813919292022-09-03T16:06:00.004-07:002022-09-03T16:06:38.301-07:00Aleksandr Borodin: Symphony No. 2/In the Steppes of Central Asia/Prince Igor (Excerpts)<p>Aleksandr Borodin (1833-1887) was, in one important respect, not unlike Charles Ives, though not necessarily in their approach to composing music. That is, whereas Ives was an insurance company executive by profession and composed on his free time, Borodin also had a prime profession in that he was a scientist with a specialty in chemical research.</p><p>Born out of wedlock to a prince from the Russian province of Georgia and an army doctor's wife, Borodin lived an upper-class existence and studied at the Medico-Surgery Academy in St. Petersburg, earning his doctorate there and conducting post-graduate work in western Europe. He became an adjunct professor at the Academy and, in 1864, a full professor and he continued his research and teaching for the next 23 years, while also composing music.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiJ3rsY06aF7xv3kFiyfC2lhzglLEG73fyZ-6OfeptzViBUT-EvsRmxuJs5xDgYnDRqOJOwcqwDBgLl7XjezOoukp0lQugwlpTB7KhMZ-SCXmEe1Qv8ag66tRLTpMopKdcVbJ7Ze-zj9NwS7n06jHf3DfadvWiF0ZlbRkmHPqGmyJEoWldmEUn7CE3Q/s703/img20220903_16020739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="703" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiJ3rsY06aF7xv3kFiyfC2lhzglLEG73fyZ-6OfeptzViBUT-EvsRmxuJs5xDgYnDRqOJOwcqwDBgLl7XjezOoukp0lQugwlpTB7KhMZ-SCXmEe1Qv8ag66tRLTpMopKdcVbJ7Ze-zj9NwS7n06jHf3DfadvWiF0ZlbRkmHPqGmyJEoWldmEUn7CE3Q/w400-h396/img20220903_16020739.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>His second symphony was completed in 1869 and Borodin was known for using Russian folk motifs, but employing unusual harmonies, a strong sense of rhythm and a distinctive use of color in his orchestrations. There are powerful, intense passages full of tension, but also quiet, pastoral sections of great beauty in this diverse work. His tone poem, "In the Steppes of Central Asia," was finished in 1880 for the silver anniversary of the reign of Tsar Alexander II, who pushed Russian expansion into that vast region. The composer's notes refer to the silence of the steppes, reflected in the hushed opening and than an Asian melodic strain and the arrival of caravan moving through the desert, with Russian and Asian melodies in harmony before the trail away as the caravan disappears into the distance. </p><p>"Prince Igor" was the sole opera from Borodin, though it was nowhere near completed when he died suddenly at 53, so the great composers Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksandr Glazunov finished it, adding much of their own ideas to the sketches their late friend left behind. The story was of a 12th century Russian hero and the overture and march reflect the martial and nationalist Russian spirit with soaring passages, beautiful melodies and rich harmonies. The Polovtsian Dances are frequently performed, with its famous theme and its sprightly as well as propulsive rhythms widely beloved.</p><p>In all, this RCA Victor recording from 1977 by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Iranian-Armenian composer and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian, who is still living, is dynamic, powerful, beautiful and well-recorded and was a great introduction to Borodin.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-25433422200090784762022-08-28T12:28:00.000-07:002022-08-28T12:28:05.967-07:00Last Exit: Last Exit<p>The life of a non-commercial musician is nearly always one of struggle and any success, however well-deserved, can obviously be suddenly transitory. Since 1990, Bill Laswell has been a great inspiration to this blogger because of his unerring commitment to presenting music in ways that challenge, provoke and move in ways outside (often far beyond) the mainstream.</p><p>An early discovery was the incredible and oft-chaotic four-piece Last Exit, which Laswell created by bringing together three forces of nature in guitarist Sonny Sharrock, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, while the producer and bassist was truly the glue that held the center during the raging cataclysms these masters brought to the ensemble.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc6phxYA41aCzLBBB11zHLLrZGH0K5ucxABUxrLm0gGjl5hi2iHY2HR6qwyA9DdztvxOLCZNtcoeAwX8cf4RvDwGBr-NdfCIEnIHsZzrc-q2injr_T85TJIUrPgUIzVNpjBTtUPL0Lw9Eoa94zUuW1o3p_ftGQ-AuTmEtGqOZ1EcZzjjAzCn1z7R3CFQ/s699/img20220828_12080844.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="699" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc6phxYA41aCzLBBB11zHLLrZGH0K5ucxABUxrLm0gGjl5hi2iHY2HR6qwyA9DdztvxOLCZNtcoeAwX8cf4RvDwGBr-NdfCIEnIHsZzrc-q2injr_T85TJIUrPgUIzVNpjBTtUPL0Lw9Eoa94zUuW1o3p_ftGQ-AuTmEtGqOZ1EcZzjjAzCn1z7R3CFQ/w400-h393/img20220828_12080844.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The debut live recording from Paris in February 1986 literally involved the quartet arriving for the gig, without rehearsals, a set list or any pieces and just totally going for broke in a fully improvised and incendiary environment. The results can be unsettling for a listener not knowing anything about the project, but it is also bracing, cathartic and amazing to hear Sharrock and Brötzmann play their instruments to what seems like their absolute limits, while Jackson provides almost illimitable rhythmic accompaniment and Laswell keeping everything (well, almost) grounded.</p><p>Last Exit is an astounding recording as Laswell has had an amazing, diverse career as a musician and producer. Which leads to a request: please consider contributing to a <a href="https://gofund.me/9b2bb97c">Go Fund Me fundraiser</a> set up by friends of Laswell to help with expenses because his health issues, the loss of his longtime home, and the costs of maintaining his studio. Given his absolute dedication to music and what he has given to it, he deserves as much support as he can get.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-36874688139942674712022-01-05T15:10:00.002-08:002022-01-05T15:10:26.674-08:00Habib Yammine: Thurayya Pleiades<p>Habib Yammine is a Lebanese percussionist, composer, ethnomusicologist and teacher whose doctoral dissertation was on the popular music of Yemen and this album, released on the French Le Chant du Monde label in 2008, is a masterful display of Arabic percussion. Yammine plays the <i>riqq</i>, a small frame drum with cymbals held in the hands, the <i>daff</i>, a larger frame drum, and the <i>darbouka</i>, which has a goblet shape. </p><p>Yammine is joined by his wife Aicha Redouane, who also plays the <i>daff</i> as well as chants, while Oussama Chraibi, a native of Morocco, plays the bongo, the double drum often associated with Cuban music, though Yammine noted in a very helpful interview in the liners that 1940s music in Egypt fused Cuban with native sounds.</p><p>Naturally, a listener of this album has to really like percussion, especially those of the Arabic world played by the hands, because there is well over an hour with the eleven pieces, but for those who do get a chance to hear this or other recordings of Middle Eastern percussion (including amazing Persian music, for example), the rewards are many.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihn8Z7ws_GqsYok0hahzrowIWZ2RCWLAcqMm_t6TnNTaSpI-B2F650VN9a2jvti1IcT12WIMx4xPcEuEwSN0sOEQUcZQxImbGpYEP52LTefZH9PrLRLZF_uFQtzLAwxNrGtxBtokoOAUO71iNPYxsYsOb-vjqMkKvIKv9Et7P1oU16XTWZiBMnwj1nCQ=s801" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="801" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihn8Z7ws_GqsYok0hahzrowIWZ2RCWLAcqMm_t6TnNTaSpI-B2F650VN9a2jvti1IcT12WIMx4xPcEuEwSN0sOEQUcZQxImbGpYEP52LTefZH9PrLRLZF_uFQtzLAwxNrGtxBtokoOAUO71iNPYxsYsOb-vjqMkKvIKv9Et7P1oU16XTWZiBMnwj1nCQ=w400-h359" width="400" /></a></div><p>The precision, varied rhythms based on several beat patterns, and the chants, along with the crystalline production is quite hypnotic and entrancing and it is not only great to read Yammine's interview with ethnomusicologist Gilles Delebarre, but Redouane's essay gives a poetic interpretation of her husband's art. For example, she writes of the alchemy in his work that "is quite simply love, a love recounted . . . in flashes of light as he tells of the seasons and their passing, of succeeding generations of human beings, rolled out by his drums across the way of Time."</p><p>It is telling when Yammine, is replying to a question from Delebarre about the first piece having an unusual 19-beat rhythmic pattern, tells him that "you don't go to the sea to count the waves, you go to be lulled by it, to be carried aloft on the crest of the waves." This is a reminder of the best advice this blogger has heard about how to listen to music: try to follow the sounds, not the notes. As adherents of the mystical Sufi form of Islam, the musicians compose and play in such a way, as Redouane noted, that it is "a nver-ending source of joy [that] fills the present moment with fruitfulness."</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-39589436316701556542022-01-01T19:00:00.001-08:002022-01-05T15:11:09.072-08:00The Beatles: Abbey Road<p>Some thirty years ago, a Beatlemaniac friend asked why I didn't listen to the Fab Four and the reply was that, aside from having moved on to other musical interests (jazz, world and classical, mainly), which was really the main reason, there'd been plenty of exposure to that music in my youth, especially with a neighbor whose father played The Beatles <i>all the time</i> and frequently sat us down (when we were something like 8 and 9 years old) to show us the albums and explain the music in <i>great detail</i>.</p><p>Half-jokingly, I said to this friend that I'd probably wind up rediscovering The Beatles in my fifties and, sure enough, last spring is when that happened. Picking an album to highlight here is definitely not a question of saying it's a favorite or the best, because <i>Revolver</i> is awesome, the eponymous album is the most interesting, and <i>Sgt. Pepper's</i>, with its studio innovations, is also stellar.</p><p>On balance, though, <i>Abbey Road</i> is incredible, especially after the <i>Let It Be</i> sessions proved to be a particular challenge (though Peter Jackson's new doc suggests the problems confronting the bad were not as bad as many have argued.) Whatever the viewpoint on that, this recording wound up being a great finale for a phenomenal band.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBC9SX1Rw6q0mwJCEUxzlu_DAaKBhIi3v3hIde7-YJ8fatZlUk4m-StugD4mrV7uu1ztQGxKwsU4-nYLpwcbF2LiImRnSEMePmL7awUAwwqflwu9EpdmSmMqWFm3LarukZ0g8LfSiWHWqGbjKXKG9IBzpW-IaJAtz2QrPzMGKzIPNkhGqFtjay6bKAkw=s709" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="709" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBC9SX1Rw6q0mwJCEUxzlu_DAaKBhIi3v3hIde7-YJ8fatZlUk4m-StugD4mrV7uu1ztQGxKwsU4-nYLpwcbF2LiImRnSEMePmL7awUAwwqflwu9EpdmSmMqWFm3LarukZ0g8LfSiWHWqGbjKXKG9IBzpW-IaJAtz2QrPzMGKzIPNkhGqFtjay6bKAkw=w400-h393" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>There are obvious highlights, starting with the opener "Come Together," and while John Lennon said that he was becoming increasingly "submerged" once "I Am The Walrus" was rejected as a single, and his relationship with Yoko Ono, exploring experiemental music, and getting addicted to heroin, was definitely pulling him away from the band, it's a great, great tune. He was purportedly embarrassed by such contributions as "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" and didn't much like the collage, but his other main offering, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is another classic.</p><p>It doesn't appear to have been an accident that both those "heavy" pieces were followed by two of George Harrison's greatest songs in "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun." He was clearly increasingly frustrated by not having more of his tunes included on albums and was looking very much forward to striking out on his own, whether as part of The Beatles or not. These two songs are still phenomenal by any standard.</p><p>To this listener, Paul McCartney's main contribution seems to have been shepherding the recording with George Martin, especially on the collage of songs on the second side of the LP that ends with great tracks like "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight," while "The End" is a rare example of where the three guitarists trade solos and Ringo even provided a solo, which he's always said he's resisted, and "Because" has that great three-part harmony. As far as his songs are concerned, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" often gets hammered for being yet another McCartney trifle and others may not be essential in the band's canon. It does seem, though, that his discipline, often needed after manager Brian Epstein's suicide, in getting The Beatles to put together a classic recording after the <i>Let It Be</i> fiasco was essential to the success of <i>Abbey Road</i>, which was a stellar way for the group to end its amazing run.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-64068379047182062222021-12-31T16:54:00.002-08:002021-12-31T16:54:28.164-08:00Miles Davis: Get Up With It<p>For many, Miles Davis passed beyond the pale when he embraced electric instruments, funk and soul rhythms, avant-guard touches, and other elements to his music by 1970. While <i>In A Silent Way</i> and <i>Bitches Brew</i> caused consternation, the situation only became more controversial as the first half of the decade crawled on. </p><p><i>On The Corner</i> from 1972 fully embraced a youth-oriented sound and was roundly lambasted and then Davis took his sound into even more diverse realms with sprawling double albums, studio and live, that alienated many of this long-time fans and frustrated fellow musicians, many close friends. Typically, he pressed on, though the effects of alcohol and drugs, often a result of self-medication for a variety of physical ailments and mental and emotional turmoil, have often been debated.</p><p><i>Get Up With It</i>, released by Columbia on 22 November 1974 and with Teo Macero's usual production wizardry, is a compilation of pieces from May 1970 to October 1974 that is both confounding and thrilling. It has two very long musical meditations in "He Loved Him Madly," a heartfelt tribute to the recently deceased Duke Ellington, and the great "Calypso Frelimo" that find Miles exploring what would later be broadly called "ambient" sound. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9oWZPJlhij_ZmJNXYsUQuFQ18NxI23yJRM0AxO9sc3pzfakqCRMgyurEpW1Jb6FdvDkt2PGEvbufvHyFY39M7pW_YCjR41UfToH73Mb2XbSL8KX5Z7OhFIR3lMrYZZwCOrg5S6KcNUrsNjnNblo_nOfxPsrYlene7eVaOdhGcgO3V6G0f_MdfYLUinA=s708" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="708" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9oWZPJlhij_ZmJNXYsUQuFQ18NxI23yJRM0AxO9sc3pzfakqCRMgyurEpW1Jb6FdvDkt2PGEvbufvHyFY39M7pW_YCjR41UfToH73Mb2XbSL8KX5Z7OhFIR3lMrYZZwCOrg5S6KcNUrsNjnNblo_nOfxPsrYlene7eVaOdhGcgO3V6G0f_MdfYLUinA=w400-h393" width="400" /></a></div><p>"Red China Blues" is pretty straight-forward, on the other hand, while "Rated X" is a razor-sharp and often wickedly propulsive piece with avant-garde touches. The other tunes are named for people in the leader's life, including "Maiysha," "Mtume," named for the single-monikered percussionist in his band, and the funky "Billy Preston," who is now back in the spotlight because of the late keyboardist's fundamental contributions to the Beatles' <i>Let It Be</i> sessions, the subject of Peter Jackson's new documentary.</p><p>For its time, though really for any era, this is an astonishing album with its wildly experimental bent, explorations of genre, and performances by quite a roster of master musicians including the incredible Pete Cosey on guitar, Sonny Fortune on flute, guitarist John McLaughlin, pianists Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, and drummer Al Foster. Having tabla player Badal Roy and electric sitarist Khalil Balakrishna on some tracks really adds a great international perspective and Michael Henderson's bass is too repetitive for some, but is exactly what his boss wanted and it holds everything together. Saxophonist David Liebman, who played on the two long masterpieces, contributes really insighful liner notes to the 2000 remaster.</p><p>In under a year, an exhausted, pain-wracked and addicted Davis abruptly quit performing, not to return for six years. While he got cleaned up and relatively healthy, his music was entirely different, less challenging and generally just not as interesting as before. Yet, he was clearly happier and in better shape, physically and mentally. When I saw him three times in the late 80s, he was having fun, even if the music was not as creative as it had been for most of thirty years—an incredible run by any artistic standard. It's sometimes hard to believe Miles been gone for three decades, but <i>Get Up With It</i> is a favorite of his for this listener.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-34258195578101104192021-12-29T14:24:00.000-08:002021-12-29T14:24:00.508-08:00Black Uhuru: Sinsemilla<p>As has been related here before, a highlight concert experience for this blogger was the incredible double-bill in summer 1984 of Black Uhuru and King Sunny Ade and one of the most enduring memories was the powerful throb from the stage through the concrete floor and up into the plastic seats from the bass of the incomparable Robbie Shakespeare ("Basspeare"), who was locked in tight with his "Riddim Twins" partner, drummer Sly Dunbar ("Drumbar") as Black Uhuru showed why it was the greatest reggae act in the aftermath of Bob Marley's death a few years earlier.</p><p>Shakespeare's death three weeks ago at age 68 following kidney surgery is a huge loss, but, fortunately, his body of work over decades with the session ensembles The Revolutionaries and The Aggrovators, Black Uhuru, with Dunbar through their Taxi Productions work, and in many sessions including several with the great Peter Tosh, Bob Dylan's <i>Infidels </i>and other records, Culture's masterpiece <i>Two Sevens Clash</i>, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Joan Armatrading and many others, remains to enjoy and appreciate.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCNKHc2dCYytWNMLIZNucPbCh10Pbx4nK1v29xfRrD6IEIL8mBQ9JHcz8eyYqFuOrnTxLpDpdDCEONeuCKTVsJ3trWBBhde4f_nawicbwIk15TM_ebuEfyhw1NXDIqI6OMKRQfKD5G3wnXSSJTKZLle13K365oAxU1iwBK8dV3dkKrPupGo81Tohbq-A=s708" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="708" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCNKHc2dCYytWNMLIZNucPbCh10Pbx4nK1v29xfRrD6IEIL8mBQ9JHcz8eyYqFuOrnTxLpDpdDCEONeuCKTVsJ3trWBBhde4f_nawicbwIk15TM_ebuEfyhw1NXDIqI6OMKRQfKD5G3wnXSSJTKZLle13K365oAxU1iwBK8dV3dkKrPupGo81Tohbq-A=w400-h391" width="400" /></a></div><p><i>Sinsemilla</i> was released by Island Records in July 1980 and is a phenomenal record with Shakespeare and Dunbar working with singer Michael Rose to create eight tracks that are all strong. Rose's keening vocals, socially conscious lyrics, the backing vocals of Derrick Simpson and Rose (Puma Jones didn't show for the session, so the lead singer jumped in,) the contributions of lead guitarist "Duggie" Bryan, the rhythm guitar of "Ranchie" McLean, keyboards from Ansell Collins and percussion by "Sticky" Thompson, and, of course, the brilliant work of the rhythem section are work together seamlessly for an album that retains its high quality from start to finish.</p><p>The opening tracks "Happiness" and "World is Africa," along with "No Loafing (Sit and Wonder)," and the title tracks are standouts, but, again, the cohesiveness of the album, which was carried through with the amazing follow-up, <i>Red</i>, previously featured on this blog, is very impressive. Reggae is a genre that puts the rhythm section front and center and Robbie Shakespeare was virtually without peer in his long career--long may he be recognized for his stellar body of work.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-61566656474978610662021-11-07T14:33:00.004-08:002021-11-07T14:33:30.270-08:00Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!<p>This Hyperion Records recording of three dozen variations by Frederic Rzewski, who died this past June at 83 years, based on Chilean composer Sergio Ortega's 1969 piece, <i>¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido! </i>is a fascinating excursion into what Rzewski wrote came from a realization that "there was no reason why the most difficult and complex formal structures" in so-called classical piano music "could not be expressed in a form which could be understood by a wide variety of listeners." Also motivated by what he referred to as "a crisis in theory, not only of music but in many different fields, including science and politics," Rzewski wanted, in "the absence of a general theory to explain phenomena and guide behavior," to develop his work so that "I explored form in which existing musical languages could be brought together."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-G8UoyOT5iFIZpDdYp9kUQaRWLoX_wPpAosKi-EJ6BD7DU_nz9Osem8jM_8WMR6C6r-zYJGc6r8D5hhcZqE4EUIMqSIkBMLTepZjVYnTgNZMPcJw5vuRUS9EwvoCHMMiiY4_bkClqe6I/s698/img20211107_14231716.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="698" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-G8UoyOT5iFIZpDdYp9kUQaRWLoX_wPpAosKi-EJ6BD7DU_nz9Osem8jM_8WMR6C6r-zYJGc6r8D5hhcZqE4EUIMqSIkBMLTepZjVYnTgNZMPcJw5vuRUS9EwvoCHMMiiY4_bkClqe6I/w400-h390/img20211107_14231716.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Ortega's work was a merging of classical and popular forms, including the use of traditional Chilean folk instruments, in service of a left-wing movement under the <span style="font-style: italic;">Unidad Popular</span> banner and Rzewski developed his version six years later. It contains a theme with 36 measures followed by that number of variations, with the latter divided into six groups, so that there are six cycles consisting of six stagees involving what the composer called "simple events," as well as rhythms, melodies, counterpoints, harmonies and combinations of those five.</p><p>As formal as the structure is, and there is a place or the performer to improvise after the sixth cycle, which performer Marc-André Hamelin does wonderfully, the untutored listener only has to appreciate the variety of melodic content, other musical material, and, especially, the dramatic differences in dynamics rather than understand the form. The last 16 minutes is comprised the last two of Rzewski's quartet of <i>North American Ballads</i>, which built on Bach's chorale preludes and American spiritual and blues influences and the results are fascinating and beautiful.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-5681975315773259872021-10-04T16:18:00.002-07:002021-10-04T16:18:40.501-07:00Les Mystére des Voix Bulgares, Volume Two<p>In these times of wildfires, oil spills, the pandemic, threats to our democracy and all manner of trials, troubles and tribulations, it sometimes takes a little extra effort to find what is beautiful in our world and it's in those moments that listening to staggering polyphonic marvel that is the music of <i>Les Mystére des Voix Bulgares</i>, the female choir music of Bulgaria, where east meets west, can be a healing and cleansing experience.</p><p>This music was first heard by this blogger in 1990 and not long afterward came a blissful and spine-tingling concert in Los Angeles, which included instrumental interludes that were impressive as expertly-performed and also fun. You couldn't help walking out of the venue feeling refreshed and hopeful and someday it would be great to hear this music in person again to find that sense of renewal.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIfMmbQiRge-6xN-6PRCYIyfE_xv2jN0acZs2fu97wBXXy5u-WkelUSyb4svCK2FT09m5Ald3wml4hB120GyHpv_EKQ3ZfKMxG8S1P2HATInq2PA9GtXhtR4QwJZFTA3kH3KF6aFvDmF3/s701/img20211004_16142265.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="701" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIfMmbQiRge-6xN-6PRCYIyfE_xv2jN0acZs2fu97wBXXy5u-WkelUSyb4svCK2FT09m5Ald3wml4hB120GyHpv_EKQ3ZfKMxG8S1P2HATInq2PA9GtXhtR4QwJZFTA3kH3KF6aFvDmF3/s320/img20211004_16142265.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>After the surprising commercial success of the first volume of <i>Les Mystére des Voix Bulgares</i>, issued in 1987 (first on the British alternative [is that a reasonable descriptor?] label 4AD and then on Elektra's Nonesuch Explorer), a second volume, also recorded in Bulgaria by Swiss organist and musicologist Marcel Cellier was quickly released. If it didn't have the shock and surprise greeting listeners from the first volume, there doesn't really seem to be any lessening of quality.</p><p>These recordings range from 1957 to 1987, with one performance from that early date, several from the Seventies and the remainder from the Eighties. There were several ensembles involved, but there really is no strong difference, other than some have more solo work and there is one quartet piece. It's all gorgeous, beautifully rendered and the sound, even from these varied periods, is excellent.</p><p>It's been several years since this music has been heard, but returning to it now seems particularly apt and needed.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-58600773664113124542021-09-21T11:36:00.000-07:002021-09-21T11:36:02.139-07:00Richard H. Kirk: Shadow of Fear/Dekadrone/BN9drone<p>This morning came the terrible news of the death, at age 65, of Richard H. Kirk, who I have listened to and admired deeply for thirty-five years. This innovator of electronic music, beginning with Cabaret Voltaire in 1973 and including a staggeringly productive solo career, featuring many, many aliases, always put the music first and, for those who know, his body of work and his legacy is not just massive in scope and scale, but impressive in its diversity and ingenuity.</p><p>It had been planned to soon highlight on this blog Kirk's remarkable return as Cabaret Voltaire through the release through Mute Records in fall 2020 of the great album, <i>Shadow of Fear</i>, followed this past spring with the issuing of the drone recordings, <i>Dekadrone</i> and <i>BN9drone</i>. This trio showed that there was no diminution of RHK's forward-thinking, yet past-respecting, talents with the recordings made, by virtue of the failure of (somewhat) newer recording equipment, with old-school technology, but sounding fresh and vital now.</p><p>For months after receiving <i>Shadow of Fear</i>, that album was being listened to very regularly and such tracks as "The Power (Of Their Knowledge)," "Night of the Jackal," and "Universal Energy" being particularly powerful and compelling, though the recording is strong from start to finish. Whatever criticism Kirk received for reviving the name in 2010 without longtime collaborator Stephen Mallinder, whose <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenMal">tweet this morning</a> expressed concisely that relationship between the two, he deserves eternal credit for releasing a record that built off the past while moving resolutely forward.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAGtVmou7j2FL-T2Y50lJqS-b3MCHvhBvmyfggjf8uc_bvW-I2aSOEfp8aFA-dtnJVCJ_FN7ZratEUu7l-qzCqyFTOQ9a7HdMVTm_EFpInLFGyVqZE_pQ9SJv0t1kar-sPuPzLxbYgyYQ/s2048/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="2048" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAGtVmou7j2FL-T2Y50lJqS-b3MCHvhBvmyfggjf8uc_bvW-I2aSOEfp8aFA-dtnJVCJ_FN7ZratEUu7l-qzCqyFTOQ9a7HdMVTm_EFpInLFGyVqZE_pQ9SJv0t1kar-sPuPzLxbYgyYQ/w400-h268/003.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The <i>Dekadrone</i> and <i>BN9drone</i> albums are also really interesting offshoots of what he did in putting <i>Shadow of Fear</i> together and, in this pandemic environment with climate change making its visceral impact fully clear, these unsettling excursions into the netheworld of electronic manipulation are relevant soundtracks to the upheavals and uncertainties that are emblematic of these times.</p><p>Today is definitely a time to delve deeply into these sound worlds formed by a highly creative and particularly singular artist whose uncompromising devotion to his sonic architecture is deserving of so much more attention than he has received. Since 1986, when I put CV's <i>Drinking Gasoline</i> EP on the turntable and then spent days trying to wrap my young head around what was being projected through the speakers, I've regularly listened, absorbed and enjoyed the unique musical vision of Richard H. Kirk, who was influenced by so many, including the masters of dub like the late Lee "Scratch" Perry, who will be featured in the next post.</p><p>Kirk lives on through his remarkable music spanning close to a half-century and let's hope that he will continue to be heard and appreciated in all his diversity, aliases, and prodigious output.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-84651449437544788322021-09-20T13:23:00.003-07:002021-09-20T13:23:34.608-07:00For Fanatics Only— Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost<p>Saxophonist and composer Albert Ayler (1936-1970) was definitely a one-of-a-kind musician and certainly not easy listening. It's understandable why it would be hard to get into what he was doing, but, if you do, you <i>really</i> do. </p><p>After an initial tryout with the staggering <i>Live in Greenwich Village</i>, it took a while to get back into it, but acquiring the phenomenal <i>Spiritual Unity </i>did it and a deep dive into the remarkable music generated by Ayler in the space of just a few years from about 1964 to 1967 proved to be an exhilirating experience with the sheer joy, power and spirituality in the music a powerful pull into his singular world.</p><p>You'd have to be a dedicated Ayler fanatic to acquire <i>Holy Ghost</i>, but it is a staggering treasure house of riches. Released in 2004 by Revenant Records, formed by the great musician John Fahey and a partner, this retrospective features nine discs, seven of them comprised of live recordings from 1962, when he offered a trio of idiosyncratic covers of jazz standards in a Finland concert, to 1970, when, dealing with tremendous professional and personal problems, he played a festival in France that summer, just a couple of months before his body was found in the East River in New York.</p><p>Most of the concert material is from his peak years with performances in Berlin, Copenhagen, and Rotterdam, as well as New York, Newport and two gigs in Ayler's hometown of Cleveland. There are also some real treats here, including a 22-minute workout with the great Cecil Taylor in Denmark in 1962, when the legendary pianist recorded his vital music at the Cafe Montmartre, and three tunes Ayler and band played for the funeral of his mentor, John Coltrane (one can really hear the anguish in Ayler's playing.)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQY_xKyEHcKYDTqoygI0jYY5KP-QQoYBrLbeMRza79Ukp4XUbcVHimw_w4gpC13517FNhiM9eJNl7iD-XpTL6RlTnxEDrdntdOMM3EsgNyeknnjvNOfpuZUaCHZZeeTXEv_yRoJjPZF81A/s2048/019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1455" data-original-width="2048" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQY_xKyEHcKYDTqoygI0jYY5KP-QQoYBrLbeMRza79Ukp4XUbcVHimw_w4gpC13517FNhiM9eJNl7iD-XpTL6RlTnxEDrdntdOMM3EsgNyeknnjvNOfpuZUaCHZZeeTXEv_yRoJjPZF81A/w400-h284/019.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>As with his later albums, the performances on the sixth and seventh discs include his eccentric girlfriend/vocalist Mary Parks and are notably different than his best work, but there is also his appearance as a sideman for Pharoah Sanders with his 23-minute opus, "Venus/Upper and Lower Egypt) and two tunes recorded in early 1969 at New York's Town Hall for the band of Ayler's brother Donald and featuring the great Sam Rivers on sax and Richard Davis on bass. The recording quality varies considerably over these discs, but, for Ayler fan(atic)s, this is a true bonanza.</p><p>The last two discs are comprised of interviews with Ayler as well as early collaborator (and bridge to mentor Ornette Coleman) Don Cherry and there is a bonus tenth disc of two recordings made while Ayler was in a United States Army band. The package is incredible, housed in a plastic box made from a mold of an onyx original and containing facsimiles of a Slug's Saloon handbill, a photo of Ayler as a boy, essays about the musician and others, while the discs are housed in beautiful rice-paper sleeves.</p><p>Then, there is a 200+ page hardbound book with testaments to Ayler, essays by Val Wilmer and Amiri Baraka and others, very detailed information on influences, sidemen, the set's tracklist, and a wealth of photographs. The package is pretty remarkable and a great homage to one of the most distinctive and creative musicians of his time, who once wrote, "the music we play is a prayer, a message coming from God." Whatever it was, the music of Albert Ayler was nothing if not absolutely sincere, totally honest and completely unfiltered and it is a powerful experience.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-84357547631120637942021-07-13T09:47:00.000-07:002021-07-13T09:47:02.312-07:00Felix Mendelssohn: Complete Piano Music<p>Why the great Felix Mendelssohn has not been featured here before is an unfortunate oversight because, despite his tragically brief life, he amassed an incredible body of work, so we'll make up for lost time by highlighting this amazing six-disc box set issued by the remarkable Nimbus Records comprising all of the music written for piano by this sublime composer.</p><p>Performed by the brilliant Martin Jones, who has recorded an enormous amount for the label, the recordings entail over six hours and it has never been a problem to sit down for a work day at the computer and listen to this uniformly excellent music all the way through or over a couple of days. Especially during these troubled times, when a respite is often needed to refresh the mind, listening to Mendelssohn's diverse array of piano works is a necessary and appreciated balm.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1h_egMXsoC-aUXAKkFdw1aHvMdi5rtgJYy5Nc21oxh490fFqF46B2NWB9wVYUTosWq0rgDojAwMCF0brNMKXkco9qoH6qarAdBD0hcQlLm9lIkJL7c0tIU4lqoboqs9uNhjT4nq8QyD-b/s700/img20210713_09302238.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="700" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1h_egMXsoC-aUXAKkFdw1aHvMdi5rtgJYy5Nc21oxh490fFqF46B2NWB9wVYUTosWq0rgDojAwMCF0brNMKXkco9qoH6qarAdBD0hcQlLm9lIkJL7c0tIU4lqoboqs9uNhjT4nq8QyD-b/w400-h393/img20210713_09302238.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>More impressive is that much of this work was done while the composer was a teen, including his sonatas, which as the liners note, hardly sound like they were juvenile works. The beautiful preludes and fugues were produced during his late teens through late twenties. At twenty, Mendelssohn visited Wales and three fantasies came out of that, including a remarkble one in F-sharp minor.</p><p>His best known piano pieces include the <i>Rondo Capriccioso,</i> the <i>Variations Sérieuses</i>, and the <i>Songs Without Words</i>, the latter intended for those to play at home in their parlor and often thought of as "piano fodder for the multitude," but highly popular when performing music was common in many households long before, of course, the phonograph, radio and television. "Sweet Remembrance," the first of those songs without words, has great personal meaning as it was the march used for my own wedding nearly a quarter century ago.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3385287384290748913.post-66917996560490777842021-07-09T10:47:00.002-07:002021-07-09T10:47:41.446-07:00Raajeswari Padmanabhan: Music of the Veena II<p>Music is generally a male-dominated profession worldwide, but this remarkable album, released in 1989 by JVC as part of its World Sound series, is an example of a woman master musician in the Carnatic tradition of South India, Raajeswati Padmanabhan (1939-2008), performing on the <i>veena</i>, said in the brief English portion of the liners to be the oldest (other sources suggest among the oldest) of instruments in the sub-continent.</p><p>A large plucked string instrument with the large curved resonator on the right side of the performer and the tuning box at the left. The notes point out that, of the seven strings, four are above the frets, while the other are open and serve to provide drones as well as the indicate the bears of the <i>tala</i>, rhythm, utilized in a piece. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmA67SFz7p4gvbEQgbSYG_GEF4fkTnPkxijSoZDD47_rruF5uBFVwIWXeQrQzGKEygBUb7dwWsK7q14Rv-hUvj6jQSirbwMLSbI-hUf62UXcH_YsXz7VMSmXshL_BAWVpz3ZDz3x_thag-/s699/img20210709_10425806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="699" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmA67SFz7p4gvbEQgbSYG_GEF4fkTnPkxijSoZDD47_rruF5uBFVwIWXeQrQzGKEygBUb7dwWsK7q14Rv-hUvj6jQSirbwMLSbI-hUf62UXcH_YsXz7VMSmXshL_BAWVpz3ZDz3x_thag-/w400-h394/img20210709_10425806.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The liners also offer that "the main attraction of the <i>veena</i> is the meditative atmosphere which its sound evokes" because of ongoing droning, the use of microtones and "subtle melodic inflections." It adds that "listeners experience moments of ecstasy when the highly individual and unique sound of the <i>veena</i> is handled by a master of improvisation within the format of a <i>raga</i>." </p><p>The masterful playing is expressed through four pieces, with the first being a brief, by Indian standards, six-minute one, and the second twice as long. The fuller experience of the <i>raga</i> is found, however, in the last two pieces, with running times of 23 and 24 minutes. While Padmanabhan performs on the featured instrument, her daughter Shreevidhya Chandramouli provides a drone but also duets with her mother, while Tanjore Upendran plays the <i>mridangam</i> drum. Given the horrible surge in COVID-19 cases in India, there is an especially poignant context listening to this amazing music now.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0