Ocora: The World of Traditional Music

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

Pharoah Sanders: Tauhid

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.

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.

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, Ask the Ages (1991), with the saxophonist playing with the searing passion not heard for a long time.

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, Tauhid, recorded in November 1966 and released early the following year, not long before Coltrane's death.

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.

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!

Aleksandr Borodin: Symphony No. 2/In the Steppes of Central Asia/Prince Igor (Excerpts)

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.

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.

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.  

"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.

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.

Last Exit: Last Exit

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.

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.

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.

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 Go Fund Me fundraiser 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.

Habib Yammine: Thurayya Pleiades

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 riqq, a small frame drum with cymbals held in the hands, the daff, a larger frame drum, and the darbouka, which has a goblet shape.  

Yammine is joined by his wife Aicha Redouane, who also plays the daff 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.

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.

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."

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."

The Beatles: Abbey Road

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 all the time 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 great detail.

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 Revolver is awesome, the eponymous album is the most interesting, and Sgt. Pepper's, with its studio innovations, is also stellar.

On balance, though, Abbey Road is incredible, especially after the Let It Be 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.

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.

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.

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 Let It Be fiasco was essential to the success of Abbey Road, which was a stellar way for the group to end its amazing run.

Miles Davis: Get Up With It

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 In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew caused consternation, the situation only became more controversial as the first half of the decade crawled on.  

On The Corner 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.

Get Up With It, 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.  

"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' Let It Be sessions, the subject of Peter Jackson's new documentary.

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.

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 Get Up With It is a favorite of his for this listener.

Black Uhuru: Sinsemilla

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.

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 Infidels and other records, Culture's masterpiece Two Sevens Clash, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Joan Armatrading and many others, remains to enjoy and appreciate.

Sinsemilla 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.

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, Red, 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.

Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

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, ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido! 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."

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 Unidad Popular 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.

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 North American Ballads, which built on Bach's chorale preludes and American spiritual and blues influences and the results are fascinating and beautiful.

Les Mystére des Voix Bulgares, Volume Two

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 Les Mystére des Voix Bulgares, the female choir music of Bulgaria, where east meets west, can be a healing and cleansing experience.

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.

After the surprising commercial success of the first volume of Les Mystére des Voix Bulgares, 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.

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.

It's been several years since this music has been heard, but returning to it now seems particularly apt and needed.

Richard H. Kirk: Shadow of Fear/Dekadrone/BN9drone

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.

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, Shadow of Fear, followed this past spring with the issuing of the drone recordings, Dekadrone and BN9drone.  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.

For months after receiving Shadow of Fear, 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 tweet this morning expressed concisely that relationship between the two, he deserves eternal credit for releasing a record that built off the past while moving resolutely forward.

The Dekadrone and BN9drone albums are also really interesting offshoots of what he did in putting Shadow of Fear 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.

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 Drinking Gasoline 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.

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.

For Fanatics Only— Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost

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 really do.  

After an initial tryout with the staggering Live in Greenwich Village, it took a while to get back into it, but acquiring the phenomenal Spiritual Unity 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.

You'd have to be a dedicated Ayler fanatic to acquire Holy Ghost, 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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Felix Mendelssohn: Complete Piano Music

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.

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.

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.

His best known piano pieces include the Rondo Capriccioso, the Variations Sérieuses, and the Songs Without Words, 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.

Raajeswari Padmanabhan: Music of the Veena II

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 veena, 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.

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 tala, rhythm, utilized in a piece.  

The liners also offer that "the main attraction of the veena 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 veena is handled by a master of improvisation within the format of a raga."  

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 raga 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 mridangam drum.  Given the horrible surge in COVID-19 cases in India, there is an especially poignant context listening to this amazing music now.

Marvin Gaye: Every Great Motown Hit

Watching the recent CNN special on the 50th anniversary of the release of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album was a revelation, given the troubled upbringing, turmoil and triumph of his remarkable career and his tragic end that the documentary ably reviewed.  The film was well-produced, featured great interviews with family, friends and others who knew and worked with Gaye, and put into excellent perspective the immense accomplishment of that recording.

Not having the album, however, meant that it was time to fish out a compilation purchased many years ago, this being the Every Great Motown Hit, although this is a misleading title because it has fifteen choice Gaye pieces, but certainly not every hit song.  In any case, it is a fine survey of his career from his breakout years with Motown in the early to mid Sixties, his remarkable collaboration with the sadly short-lived and brilliant singer Tammi Terrell, and his amazing transformation in the early Seventies with albums like What's Going On and Let's Get It On.

It is never easy to make a market stylistic change musically, particularly as tastes change, but Gaye, like James Brown and others, found a way to do so while releasing an album with pointed social commentary, of which he was warned to avoid as not marketable.  He persisted, though, and delivered with a recording that is not only sonically still fresh and impressive, but with messaging that is, obviously, still very relevant and timely.

This is one of the most important points raised in the documentary; that Gaye's achievement was both to create incredible music and powerful statements and, with all that has been "going on" recently in American society with regard to race and social justice, his work very much matters.  There are very few artists who can have that be said about them a half-century later.

Sam Rivers: Contrasts

This great Sam Rivers album from 1979 has an apt title, for sure, and this adventurous (which is self-evident with ever-exploratory multi-instrumentalist) recording is also a contrast for the ECM label, not best known for its free jazz catalog.  

It is also brimming with sonic contrasts that are highly complementary thanks to the interplay between the leader and the remarkable George Lewis on trombone.  Meanwhile, the rhythm section is as tight and inventive as the horn players, with Dave Holland always superlative on bass and the totally underappreciated Thurman Barker on drums (love that solo on "Zip," for example).

The pieces themselves have a broad range of sounds, tempos, and structures with some being more ambient and amorphous and others really hitting hard and swinging.  So the transition from "Zip" to "Solace" is a perfect embodiment of the former being an up-tempo, fairly straight-ahead romp and the latter a beautiful and contemplative work, including Barker's excellent marimba work behind Rivers' sinuous soprano and Lewis' sympathetic trombone work.

Then, it's to "Verve" and Rivers playing a gorgeous flute with the rhythm team right there in perfect synchronicity, while Lewis, always mindful of mood and where bandmates are, does great work after the leader's turn.  "Dazzle" takes off from Rivers' tenor and Barker's rapid cymbal work and, indeed, dazzles when the others join in to display great inter-group dynamics.  Really, though, all of the seven tunes are superlative and Contrasts one of the many highlights in Rivers' lengthy and fascinating discography.

Gabriel Fauré: Requiem and Other Choral Music

During the challenging times of the pandemic lockdown, there were a variety of ways to musically manage the difficulties.  Sometimes it was hearing great jazz, like the always inspiring Love Supreme by John Coltrane, or the transportive Hindustani ragas of India, or the impressive return of Cabaret Voltaire through the recently released Shadow of Fear album.  Music is mood, so whatever it took to make the day a little better was what was heard.

A number of times during the last fourteen or so months, another unexpected (or was it?) source of sounds was Gabriel Fauré's Requiem presented, along with other religious choral music and the "Cantique de Jean Racine," in this Collegium Records release by The Cambridge Singers and members of the City of London Sinfonia.  This musical form, of course, is the form a Roman Catholic mass for the eternal peaceful rest of the dead, but there is a core element of hope for the repose of the soul.  So, while not necessarily uplifting in sound, a requiem is fundamentally positive in intent.

Unlike other requia this listener has heard, particularly that of Mozart, who was working on it when he died, or that from Verdi, both of which include powerful passages with intense dynamic and drama to stir the audience, Fauré maintains a generally even keel emotionally.  There is still power and a low-key intensity to the music and choral work, as well as a great deal of beauty to accompany the pathos.

Obviously, the death toll from the pandemic is staggering and, sadly, was largely avoidable.  While it wasn't as if this was in mind each time and all the way through the repeated listenings of this sublime piece, listening to Fauré's Requiem is, whatever we believe happens to us after we shift off this mortal coil, a way to remember those who have departed.

The Real Mexico in Music and Song

The title of this fantastic album doesn't seem to capture the specific significance of these recordings from 1965-1966, undertaken by Henrietta Yurchenco, an ethnomusicologist who, in her absorbing liner notes, stated that she began working in México and Guatamala in the early Forties, starting in Michoacán.  Because of the people she worked with, this might be better called Mestizo and Indian Music from Michoacán, especially because the great Nonesuch Explorer series already includes titles dealing with specific areas like Chiapas, also heavily populated by natives and mestizos and also part of "the real México."

In any case, the native Purépecha Indians and mestizos of this west coast state adroitly maintained elements of their heritage within the Spanish and Mexican cultural influx and Yurchenco explained, "in 1965, on Pacanda Island in Lake Patzcuaro, we witnessed a strange mixture of paganism and Christianity."  The word "strange" could be viewed as judgmental, though that was clearly not her intent, but she observed that Purépecha performances are "seen through Indian eyes and sensibilities, replet with story line, colorful costumes, masks, dance and music."

What's great about this album is that it has small and large ensemble pieces along with solo guitar and harp pieces.  Joaquin Bautista on guitar, Epigmenio Ramos and Teodulo Naranjo (who was blind) on harp, Rogelio Acuña on vihuela (which looks like a guitar but is tuned like a lute), the singing Pulido sisters, and a mandolin orchestra performed wonderful tunes, many of them so short that you wish they could go on for a couple more minutes.  

It's all amazing, but "El Toro Antejuelo," a showcase for Naranjo, the trio of acapella songs by the Pulidos, and Bautista's performances of  "La Visita" and "Flor de Canela" stand out the most for this listener, whose exposure to "world music" was initially largely through early Nineties purchases of albums from the great Nonesuch Explorer series.  This was a more recent discovery and it is been uplifting to listen to during these troubled times.

Lull: Cold Summer

From the extreme blasts of intense noise that was Napalm Death to the slow washes of sound built on a base material of very gradual movement of subtle rhythm with Lull in a few short years shows how much former beat blast drummer Mick Harris evolved into a distinctive architect of sonic exploration, whether through the Scorn project, collaborations with a variety of musicians like Eraldo Bernocchi, Bill Laswell and James Plotkin, or with this really remarkable recording from 1994 and released on Subharmonic, with which Laswell was associated.

It is usual to refer to this as isolationist or dark ambient and so it is common to find references to it as an album filled with foreboding, as being cold or ominous.  That's understandable, but this listener finds the experience of hearing recordings like Cold Summer to be soothing, contemplative, and relaxing, even if there are those washes of sound that do have those touches of eerieness.

The first two Lull albums, Dreamt About Dreaming (1992) and Journey Through Underworlds (1993) were more visceral with elements of often loud percussion, extended voice samples (often expressing some form of agony or angst), and stronger electronic sound sources.  Both are very interesting and will be higlighted here some day, but there is a demonstrated turn inward into a more flowing and captivating ambient soundscape with Cold Summer that directed the Lull project for the next fifteen or so years.

Music is mood and even in this largely house-bound pandemic environment (though a major emergence looks to finally be in the works), Lull has proven to be an apt musical accompaniment, though, again, not in a dark sense, but, rather, in a mood of reflection and acceptance.  Having said this, there have been quite a few times over the many years that I've listened to this music that I've thought about playing it, especially, say, "Lonely Shelter," during Halloween as trick or treaters walk up the path to the door.  Talk about "dark ambient"!

Marilyn Crispell: Highlights from the 1992 American Tour

This is a great album, though it is strange that the dustjacket for this Leo Records release says "Trio With Reggie Workman & Gerry Hemingway On Tour," the disc and rear tray card says "Highlights From the 1992 American Tour" and the side of the case says "Highlights from the Simmer of 1992 American Tour."  One wonders why a more creative title couldn't have been devised that would reflect the remarkable music on this disc.

Marilyn Crispell has been highlighted here before as a solo pianist and, while a lot has been made of the inspiration she derived from the late, great Cecil Taylor, she, like any creative artist, absorbs influences from a variety of sources but develops her own style.  This is also very much true in her group work, especially in later years when her playing changed, likely as a reflection of her evolution as well as to distance herself from the constant Taylor comparisons.

So, with this package of seven tunes from four performances, we really see, as Art Lange rightly points out in his notes, that there is a big diffrence in how Crispell works with the other musicians from what Taylor did.  Lange observes that "Taylor's trios feed off of a juxtaposition of rhythmic motivation" and sometimes appeared to be working exclusive of each other.  Taylor was, of course, a very percussive pianist, brilliantly so.  But, for Crispell, Lange continues, she "builds her music in layers upon the foundation of the bass and drums."

That can be clearly heard throughout these performances, Hemingway, on drums, and Workman, veteran of so many years of playing with a dizzying array of artists on bass, are totally in sync with the leader and with each other.  Hemingway was, with Crispell, a member of easily one of the most memorable ensembles led by the great Anthony Braxton and Crispell and Workman long had a series of collaborations, so the ability of these three masters to generate amazing music is hardly a surprise.

Elisabetta Brusa: Orchestral Works, Volume 1

This great recording, issued by Naxos, presents five works by Elisabetta Brusa, who injects her symphonic pieces with a powerful sense of dynamic range, deep emotion and a keen appreciation for the evocation of history and literature.  Her Florestan from the late Nineties, for example, "reflects the fiery, passionate and fantastic side of [Robert] Schumann's own character," as the composer wrote in the notes, adding "I also consider it an autobiographica portrait."  The Messidor also from that era is inspired by various musical and literary renderings under the heading of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  1994's La Triade is a symphonic poem "freely inspired by a fable by Aesop" with text by Brusa's father Giuseppe.

The Nittemero Symphony, composed over three years in the Eighties has three movements that "reflect the course and variations of feelings and moods during the entire 24-hour cycle of a day according to the astronomical definition of ancient Greek times" and the ones evoked here are of afternoon, night and morning, respectively.  Brusa was also sure to utilize "new techniques, no-tonal (in part minimalist)" in conjunction "with traditional contrapuntal techniques."  Finally, Fanfare "is a free fantasy" deriving its spirit from musical works "written throughout the centuries for ceremonial and celebratory occasions."  Here again, traditional concepts are "fused within a neo-tonal language and techniques."

This is what makes Brusa's work so fascinating: she intertwines modern compositional concepts with traditional methods and elements so that these works do feel both new and old, but seamlessly so.  The 2001 performance by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, conducted by Fabio Mastrangelo, is excellent in bringing out the dynamic diversity of the composer's pieces and the sound of the recording is great, as well.

The rear card states that Brusa's explanation for what her music seeks includes "messages of faith and hope for a positive and peaceful future at a time of uncertainty and anxiety."  We are obviously in a hyper-realized period of those feelings and the music on this excellent disc is listened to with her comments in mind.

Folk Songs of Nepal

This is an extraordinary recording taking the listener to one of the most isolated nations on the planet, Nepal, generally only known because of its bordering the massive Himalayan peaks like Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain.  Featured here are the folk songs of the tribal groups of the Newars and Tamangs Sherpas.  Ethnomusicologist Stefano Castelli wrote in the liners that "preference was given to social rather than musical values" in choosing the material, so the lyrics of some reflect class and economic concerns, often relating to the exploitation of town laborers or general struggles to make enough money, while some songs deal with the overall conditions of humans, and a heart-wrenching letter to a soldier from home.  Other songs are of courtship and love or relate to religious and philosophical themes and sentiments.

Of course, a listener not knowing the language won't get much out of the social aspect unless particular attention is paid to the translated lyrics and Castelli's admittedly interesting summaries.  The musical interest is in the solo and duo vocalizations that, in general, are reminiscent of singing found in other parts of the world, such as the interior of Africa, or in Papua New Guinea, where isolated tribes sing of everyday themes with very little accompaniment, save percussion or rudimentary string and wind instruments.  In this case, it is all percussion, but often utilizing everyday items like benches.

A song like "Song of Manu Tamang" has an appealing melody that sounds similar to folk tunes from the West and its striking story of is of the title figure, who was homeless after being abandoned by a German woman who promised to take him back to her country, but left him in Kathmandu, where he was a thief and sold LSD to make a meager living.  He also sang another tune with the same title rendered in Italian that was a courtship song with modern references to jeans and radios.  Another highlight is "Jhyaure Evening" and its percussion helping the singer stay on track and the succeeding "Jhyaure of Dharma" with its unusual backing vocalization.  The "Jhayangri", a three-part piece nearly 12 minutes long of shaman therapy by the titular figures who are mysterious nomadic healers, is fascinating with its drums, bells and chants, evocative of ancient practices.

Folk Songs of Nepal is another great release of world music from Lyrichord and provides a remarkable musical glimpse into a mysterious country so far removed from our own.

Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won

From George Crumb to Led Zeppelin.  Maybe this is a pandemic-induced escape from harsh reality and a yearning for them good ol' days of yore when untold legions of teenage boys rocked out to the bombast and bravado of the mighty Zep, but recent months found a rekindled interest in the mothership. How the West Was Won arrived in the mail a couple of days ago and yesterday the triple-disc set, recorded in Los Angeles and Long Beach in June 1972, was listened to twice and it's playing again now.

So, yes, the wails, extemporaneous yelps and other utterances of Robert Plant have been criticized a lot as the apex (or nadir) of so-called "cock rock," and, sure, 25 minutes of "Dazed and Confused" might leave some listeners in those states (though that diversion into "The Crunge" is fun), and, OK, excess may be found in many forms, but, this 2003 compilation from the archives is, as Jimmy Page simply stated in the briefest of notes (no booklet, no photos, or fawning commentary): "Led Zeppelin at its best."

First, this is a band that strode the stages of the stadia of the world like a colossus and the playing is exceptional (and there is quite a comparison to be made to The Song Remains the Same, the only live document we knew at the time and the film of which was seen at a couple of midnight showings at a local theater).  Jimmy Page's jaw-dropping skills (not just the monster and endless supply of riffs and fleet, complex solos, but all aspects of his phenomenal playing, including the filigree, like a little Baroque quote and other touches here and there, and flourishes) is everywhere in ample evidence.  Plant, allowing for his over-enthusiasm, displayed impressive power and has to be credited for projecting to massive crowds above the maelstrom.

The real joy for this listener, though, returning to this material after four decades (!), though, is a fuller appreciation for John Bonham's incredible drumming (his "Moby Dick" showcase aside, cool as that is for someone who does like drum solos), with its diversity, drive and impeccable timing.  Then, there is the quiet, unobtrusive, but essential, contributions of John Paul Jones, who held so much of this together.  A bass player par excellence, a solid keyboardist, and a very fine mandolin player, to boot, Jones really deserves more appreciation for what he provided to the band.

How the West Was Won is bursting with great performances, too many to mention, but two elements really stand out.  The 23 minutes of "Whole Lotta Love" include some fun excursions into "Let's Have a Party," "Hello Marylou," and "Going Down Slow," that show how important early rock was to these guys and which are just plain fun.  Then, there's a staple of Zep concerts from the era, which importantly broke up the aural pummeling, in the form of the acoustic interlude.  The trio of "Going to California," "That's the Way," and "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" are really gorgeous, with Plant's more restrained vocals working very well, buy especially with Jones and Page beautifully playing in sync on mandolin and guitar.

There is diversity, a bit of experimentation (whatever listeners then and now make of that), sheer power, undeniable fluency, ambition tending occasionally to excess, and, yes, fun.  While Zep were routinely knocked for lacking the artistry of The Beatles, The Stones, or The Who, comparisons can be unfair and their gargantuan 3-plus hour shows were diverse and, most importantly, entertaining, which is supposed to be the point.  So, whatever the point, a revisitation after forty years is proving to be fun, at a time when that has been sorely lacking.

George Crumb: Complete Crumb Edition, Volume 11

Still with us at age 91, George Crumb is one of the most fascinating of modern composers, creating a wide range of music for ensembles of many sizes and pieces that go from the immensely powerful and dramatic to the mysterious and subtle.  This blogger's first exposure to his music came with the Kronos Quartet's 1990 album Black Angels and Crumb's title piece was staggering to hear for a complete novice to classical, much less the so-called "avant-garde," music.

In acquiring a number of albums of the composer's works over the years, among the most enjoyable are several of the Complete Crumb Edition series by the great Bridge Records.  Today's featured volume is the eleventh which spans time and type in a very enjoyable and enlightening way.  The first third, roughly, of the album consists of an early work "Variazoni" for orchestra and it definitely provides plenty of variation with elements of the ensemble, as well as the whole orchestra, and a range of powerful intense movements to quieter, contemplative ones with plenty of space left to enhance the sense of mystery or foreboding.

Nearly a half-century later is "Otherworldly Resonances" for a pair of amplified pianos and which is considered the second part of "Zeitgeist," featured in the fourth volume of the series (which this blogger also has).  The first movement's "Double Helix" utilizes an ostinato and ornamentation that suggests the DNA structure, while the following "Celebration and Ritual" explores a range of sounds that include ebullient and dynamic exchanges and what the composer called "mysterious and brooding" elements.  "Palimpsest" features a trio of layered sections moving from "shadowy, ghostly" sounds to  "pale and distant" element and finally what is denoted to be a layer that "projects most clearly and vividly."

The remaining roughly half-hour highlights a major collaborator of Crumb's, the incredible mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani, who is showcased with her remarkable range of styles with such pieces as "Night of the Four Moons," written after the 1969 moon landing and which includes unusual instrumentation like banjo, electric cello and percussion along with woodwinds, while DeGaetani sings from poems by Crumb's favorite poet, Federico García Lorca (tragically murdered by Franco's Fascist police in Spain in the 1930s).  Also included are 1984's "The Sleeper" based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe and "Three Early Songs," written by a teenage Crumb for his future wife and utilizing poems from obscure poets Robert Southey (early 19th century) and Sara Teasdale (early 20th century.)  There is a tremendous range of musical and vocalized elements here and provide an excellent bookend to the orchestra work that began this fine retrospective of nearly six decades of a great composer.

DJ Cheb i Sabbah: Krishna Lila

DJ Cheb i Sabbah (born Haim Serge El Baz) (1947-2013) was from Algeria and of Berber and Jewish descent, but his long career involved the melding of many types of sounds from Africa and Asia, most notably from India.  After some years as a DJ in Paris and New York, he settled in San Francisco and adopted the moniker by which he became well-known as well as by his nickname Chebiji.

He made a series of recordings for the Six Degrees label, based in San Francisco, that deeply explored his passion for beat-driven electronics, Indian and north African music, including the excellent Krishna Lila, which has two parts, "The South," and "The North," reflecting the general variations between Carnatic and Hindustani musics in India.  There are no long ragas or other forms and the pieces are shorter for the first part and more extended for the latter with a specific emphasis on bhajan, or devotional and spiritual songs in praise of the Hindu god Krishna.

Sabbah worked with several ensembles of Indian musicians to seamlessly blend the distinctive forms from the northern and southern parts of that vast nation with subtle electronics and, thanks to the ever-present Bill Laswell, some sympathetic bass guitar to create a compelling and mesmerizing musical experience.  The performing is fantastic, the production is excellent, and the album incorporates its disparate elements with nuance and deep respect for its historical classical Indian sources.

Being a DJ, Sabbah puts an emphasis on rhythm and groove, but the electronics and bass are in full support of the classic instrumentation (violin, harmonium and the vina, a sitar-like instrument) and vocals.  Karsh Kale, an Indian who plays traditional percussion as well as a Western-style drum kit, also provides more rhythmic punch, but, again, in service to the music.  Sabbah's approach is a deeply respectful fusion of sounds and Krishna Lila works beautifully because of his commitment to the core of India's traditional classical music with a subtle modern touch.