Burning Spear: Man in the Hills/Dry and Heavy

This reissue of a pair of classic prime-era reggae albums by Winston Rodney's Burning Spear project on Island Records takes us back to 1976-1977, after the phenomenal Marcus Garvey and its dub version, Garvey's Ghost, which have been featured here before.  With Bob Marley and the Wailers justifiably achieving international renown, many great bands and individuals were given the opportunity to demonstrate their talent, including the awesome Burning Spear.  

Not as hard-hitting as Marcus Garvey, 1976' Man in the Hills is a reflection of Rodney's youth growing up in the same area (St. Anne's Bay) as Marley, as well as political and spiritual concerns.  Moreover, you can't miss with his band mates, Delroy Hines and Rupert Willington, the Riddim Twins of Robbie Shakespeare (bass) and Sly Dunbar (drums), not to mention Marley's great Wailers drummer, Aston "Family Man" Barrett and other great musicians like Earl "Chinna" Smith, Tyrone Downie, Earl "Wire" Lindo and horn players like Bobby Ellis, Vincent "Trommie" Gordon, Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall and Herman Marquis.

With Dry and Heavy, from 1977, Rodney mined his earlier recordings for the famed Studio One and re-recording the material with Shakespeare, Barrett, drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, percussionist Uziah "Sticky" Thompson and many of the others who appeared on Man in the Hills.  This album was more of Rodney-directed project, with producer Jack Ruby dismissed, as were Hines and Willington, though there are backing vocals, and most reviewers view it as less successful as its predecessor.  For this listener, however, Dry and Heavy is a strong record, if mellower than Man in the Hills.

Burning Spear went to make Social Living, released in 1980, and we'll look to feature that in a future post here.  Meanwhile, interested readers might try and find this two-fer, as well as the two Garvey albums, and really delve into some of the finest music made during the essential reggae period of the last half of the Seventies, when there was far more to the music than Marley and the Wailers.

Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited

Before the film, A Complete Unknown, was known to this blogger, an interest in revisiting the music of Bob Dylan surfaced last year after close to four decades of not hearing much of his remarkable work.  After acquiring John Wesley Harding, which had not been heard before, a spate of other albums were purchased, including such classics as Blood on the Tracks, Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde and, more recently, Before the Flood, the great live album with The Band.

A favorite of the Dylan recordings that have been rediscovered is Highway 61 Revisited, released at the end of August 1965 (when this blogger was a day shy of two months old) and appearing just four months after Bringing It All Back Home.  It's hard to argue that, with Blonde on Blonde being 22 months away, Dylan was at his creative zenith, churning out amazing songs with startling frequency on albums that redefined much of popular music.

Obviously, his move from acoustic folk to electric rock was controversial to the ardent fans of the former —and the fourth volume of the Bootleg Series comprising two discs of the notorious Royal Albert Hall concert in London in May 1966 during which an outraged Luddite yelled "Judas," to which Dylan sardonically replied, "I don't believe you"—is a fantastic document of that move.

Highway 61 Revisited is a staggering record from the opening "Like A Rolling Stone" to the rollicking "Tombstone Blues" to the "Ballad of a Thin Man" and ending with the epic "Desolation Row."  With musicians like Mike Bloomfield and his impressive guitar work and Al Kooper's iconic organ on that first tune and elsewhere, not to mention Bobby Gregg's drums and Charley McCoy's guitar, accompanying Dylan's impressionistic and immersive lyrics, the album is a masterpiece from start to finish.  

Listeners expecting to get some enlightenment from Dylan's liner notes can be amused by the wordplay and seemingly stream of consciousness expressions including his remark that "the songs on this specific record are not so much songs but rather exercises in tonal breath control" while the lyrics about "beautiful strangers, Vivaldi's green jacket & the holy slow train."  Dylan often commented that the content meant various things to different people and it may be better to enjoy his way with language and the performances of the musicians rather than to try and interpret the so-called "voice of his generation."

Music of Polynesia II: Tuamotu, Austral Islands

This excellent release from the JVC World Sounds series from Japan includes 20 pieces, all but three from the Tuamotu Islands and the remainder from the Austral Islands, both in the broad archipelago of French Polynesia and collectively comprising fewer than 16,000 residents.  These people are increasingly affected by climate change in terms of such threats as ocean warming and acidification and sea level rise and who knows what will happen to them and their culture as conditions continue to worsen.

This makes recordings like this all the more valuable as documentation of the rich and fascinating musical heritage of the Tuamotu and Austral societies.  Recorded between 1977 and 1990, these pieces reflect a wide range of songs pertaining to aspects of everyday life and are a potent reminder of how music in much of the world is not professionalized and distanced from those practices and rituals.

The core of this music is the beautiful harmonies and melodies of small choral groups, often sung a capella and otherwise accompanied by hand claps and some instruments, including guitars and like ones, while dancing is an important component to the performances of many of the tunes.  As a part-Hawaiian, this listener readily hears comparisons to music from that part of Polynesia, taking in commonalities and appreciating the differences.

Fundamentally, there is a gorgeous expression of the musical cultures of these remote Pacific Ocean societies and the songs here actually serve, especially at this moment, as a soothing tonic in the face of so much tension and turmoil in the world.  Anyone seeking a similar treatment and is open to the experience is well-advised to seek this or other recordings of Polynesian music and will not be disappointed.

Anthony Braxton/Kyle Brenders: Toronto (duets) 2007

One of the many amazing attributes of Anthony Braxton's music is that he shines in duet performances, as this listener personally witnessed at a concert performed with harpist Jacqueline Kerrod and held in the lobby of The Broad contemporary art museum in Los Angeles in 2019, and that he supported and encouraged students in recordings with him during his nearly quarter-century tenure teaching at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

The featured album for this post is just such an example of both aspects, a double-disc recording with Kyle Brenders in a session in Toronto that comprises two of Braxton's Ghost Trance Music, which he noted was influenced by his taking classes at Wesleyan on Native American music, including those dealing with the Ghost Dance rituals.  The box set 9 Compositions (Iridium), which may someday be featured in this blog, included a quote from the composer about the influence that the music from these spiritual practices had on him as "various tribes came together and compiled whatever information they had left" before most of their culture was decimated—this included the perspective of tying our reality to communication with the spirit of ancestors.

As is often the case in Braxton's complex music, the performance of these numerically-assigned compositions, in this case, 199 and 356, allow for the transposition of elements from other pieces within the GTM system that could also involve the varying of tones, tempo and other aspects.  Not surprisingly, his philosophy and systems can be very complicated and challenging for non-specialists (like this blogger) to comprehend.

What stands out in this recording is the use of themes that sound like military music and repeat before the players move into other melodic and tonal territory, some of it quite beautiful and reflective amid frequent use of repetition.  Braxton, playing alto, soprano and sopranino saxophones, meshes so well with Brenders, on clarinet, soprano and tenor, that their playing almost seems telepathic, though this is clearly the result of the two of them fully utilizing the resources of the GTM model.  Brief notes by Scott Thomson observe that the use of "dialogue" means a reference to "language," which is how Braxton often speaks of his approach to musical composition and Thomson rightfully calls this recording an expression of "a beautifully original dialect" spoken by the players.  

PainKiller: Samsara

Samsara (the cycle of death and rebirth in our material world in Indian philosophy) is a welcome return to recording by PainKiller, the trio formed in 1991 comprising saxophonist John Zorn, bassist Bill Laswell, and Mick Harris, whose lightning fast drumming is replaced by beats and electronics, and which quickly recorded two albums in 1991-1992, followed by a 1993 live album and 1994's Execution Ground, which reflected a gradual move into more ambient and dub territory.  A second live recording, made in 1994, was issued eight years later, followed by a couple more live recordings with other drummers.

In 2008, Harris joined Zorn and Laswell for a one-off performance in Paris, accompanied by vocalist Mike Patton and Fred Frith, whose Guitar Solos was the last post here.  It seemed like that was going to be the last time we'd hear from PainKiller, until the surprising news that Samsara was to be released last November.

The most striking difference from earlier recordings is Harris' use of electronic percussion, which he has focused on in myriad ways for the last three decades, and, to this listener, it takes the PainKiller sound in an interesting and welcome direction.  Zorn, who played to Harris' recorded material sent to New York City from Birmingham, England, shows all of the incredible technique and power he's had for a half-century, and, as always, is very impressive.

Laswell has had serious health and financial issues and Zorn has worked frequently with his old friend in recent years to help him deal with both and, if for no other reason, this is a fundamental reason for PainKiller to reunite.  Laswell has great difficulty in playing the bass and so relied on some technical assistance while resorting to playing that is far more basic and simple, but still very effective in holding the bottom along with Harris' contributions so that Zorn can explore the dynamic range of his sax.

A new album, The Equinox, is due to be released this month and, apparently, an ambient recording is also in the works sometime this year, so there will likely be more PainKiller posts in the offing relatively soon.

Fred Frith: Guitar Solos

The last thing anyone should expect in listening to this remarkable and fascinating compilation are "guitar solos" in any popular sense.  Fred Frith has spent decades exploring the sonic range and textures of the instrument using fingers, picks and a great many other devices and tools, so that a "prepared guitar" is commonly utilized, not to mention sounds made by his breath and feet.

Moreover, improvisation is core to these eighteen pieces, the first eight of which were recorded in 1974 over four days with remainder recorded in 1976, 1978 and 1988 and the compilation made in 1991 by the Swiss label Rec Rec Genossenschaft.  Beyond this, it helped this listener to dispense with the idea that there are songs, though some titles like "Glass c/w Steel," "Out of Their Heads (On Locoweed)," "Alienated Industrial Seagulls," and "Insomnia," are evocative what is heard in the pieces.

This is also not background music and dedicated attention, either through headphones or the volume turned up is most cases, is the best way to approach these challenging works.  Though there is some harshness, including the "Alienated Industrial Seagulls" and its intense string-stretching and other elements, much of this could be heard as ambient.

The goal is not the representation of traditional technique in terms of riffs, the rapid recitation of notes in soloing and so on, but, it seems, the exploration of tone, color and the evocation of environment.  In this, Guitar Solos is a decided success, especially if one allows for the music to envelope the listener as an engrossing atmospheric experience.

Music of the Nubians, Northern Sudan

The northeastern portion of Africa known as the Sudan is an area that has endured terrible warfare and suffering in recent decades with a horrific humanitarian crisis taking place now amid famine and violence.  Moreover, the gutting of USAID makes the situation much worse and the need for the people there even more acute and urgent.

The history and culture of the Sudan is incredibly ancient and rich, including its music, and this post features a two-disc set, released in 1998 on compact disc and 1980 on vinyl, by the Staatlische Museen zu Berlin, an institution under the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, celebrating the music of the Nubian people of Northern Sudan.

The recordings date to 1973 and 1974 with the kisir (lyre) being the dominant musical instrument along with a frame drum called the taar.  Clapping and the stamping of feet are also used to accompany singing, whether soloists, small ensembles and large groups and the 33 songs are representative of such themes as religion, patriotism, work in the fields, lullabies for children, weddings and many others.

There is a great booklet with thirteen photographs and detailed text by Artur Simon discussing Sudanese history, culture and specifics about the music, instrumentation and the varied pieces.  A second booklet includes musical transcriptions and the lyrics.  These are valuable enhancements to a fascinating listening experience, especially as Simon observes that a lack of instrumentation, compared to Western nations, is hardly a lack of musical expression, which is abundant on this memorable recording.

Cabaret Voltaire: Plasticity

This one, a 2-LP vinyl set, was bought just after its October 1992 release at a Portland, Oregon record store and, a few years removed from Groovy, Laid-Back and Nasty, with the 44-minute EP Colours and Body and Soul as precursors that found CV trying to rebound from that strange 1990 relic, Plasticity was a welcome move into a new (and final) phase for Cabaret Voltaire. 

Released on the Plastex label set up by Stephen Mallinder and Richard H. Kirk after their EMI debacle, the recording was the first of three releases, followed by International Language (1993) and a personal favorite, The Conversation (1994), in which the music was all-instrumental.  While it has been said that Mallinder still had an active role, it sounds like Kirk exercised more control over these albums.  They can also be compared to such projects as Sandoz and Electronic Eye from that era.

In any case, a favorite CV track, "Low Cool," opens the record with a sample of Los Angeles gang members casually talking about the violence and nihilism of their world. "Soul Vine (70 Billion People)" took found sound from the 1981 underground dance floor hit, "Yashar," while "Inside the Electronic Revolution" is a highlight, as is "Neuron Factory."  More ambient tunes like "Resonator" and "Deep Time" nicely provide alternates to the flow of the album, while "Soulenoid (Scream at the Right Time)" hits the sample peak with an eerie and unsettling series of female screams to end a fascinating record.

The CD version omits "Brazilia" and "UFO" erasing almost 13 minutes from the double vinyl version and a planned 60-minute video was shelved because of financial concerns, but, despite this, Plasticity rates high among the mammoth CV catalog and showed the Kirk and Mallinder were able to find redemption and relevancy after a significant bump in the long road of their 20-year career.  The duo managed to stay abreast of changes in electronic music, while keeping the core of what made them so great going back nearly two decades, including abundant sampling, unnerving ambience and potent up-tempo elements.

John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy: Evenings at the Village Gate

To hear some critics, with their infinite reservoirs of wisdom, tell it in 1961, the inclusion of the masterful multi-instrumentalist and composer Eric Dolphy in John Coltrane's band was a blasphemy against jazz.  The Los Angeles native wrote and played in unconventional and highly distinctive ways and to those unimpressed ears, his work was harsh, noisy, dissonant and not tonal enough.  

Not unlike those who could not wrap their heads (ears) around other great innovators of the era, whether it was Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor or others, these critics were also generally unhappy with Coltrane's move into more experimental territory after he left Atlantic Records to join the upstart Impulse! label, where among his first recordings were the amazing performances from November 1961 at the Village Vanguard in New York City.

The album released early in 1962 with three tracks "Spiritual," "Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise," and the astounding "Chasin' the Trane" were divisive among many so-called experts, who decried the leader's explorations into the varieties of sound generated by his soprano and tenor saxophone playing.  Dolphy played bass clarinet on "Spiritual" and did so on "India" when that tune and "Impressions" appeared on the 1963 release titled after the latter.  In 1997, however, a 4-disc set of the complete Village Vanguard recordings provided devotees with an aural feast with Dolphy and Trane joined by pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones, and bassists Reggie Workman (the sole survivor of these recordings and now 86 years old) and Jimmy Garrison.

A fascinating complement to these recordings is Evenings at the Village Gate, released last year after the tapes, recorded by engineer Rich Alderson with the venue's new sound system, were discovered at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts by an archivist working on Bob Dylan recordings, as the folk artist was recorded at the Village Gate that year, as well.  These tapes were from August 1961, but with the same sextet format and with Art Davis as the other bassist.

Coltrane and Dolphy famously issued a published answer to the naysayers in Down Beat magazine, but this album and the Vanguard tracks should suffice in hindsight because Trane's observation that Dolphy broadened the band's sound as well as freed its musicians to take the music in new directions is on the mark.  All that critical angst is a reminder that innovators have to be allowed to pursue their passion for finding new ways to express themselves and those wedded to "tradition" shouldn't stand in the way or criticize honest and authentic artistic endeavor.

These pieces range from 10 to 22 minutes allowing the band to explore at a comfortable and organic pace and for soloists to take their showcases wherever they need to go.  The hit "My Favorite Things," which would be reprocessed into much freer territory in subsequent years, "Impressions," and, especially, "Africa," long a favorite of this listener, are especially impressive, while "Greensleeves," part of Trane's repertoire at the time is also taken to new levels of expression.  The surprise here, perhaps, is "When Lights Are Low," in which the 1930s chestnut sounds somewhat out of place on one hand, but, on the other, shows what innovators can do to both respect and expand upon tradition.

Sadly, Dolphy died in 1964 at age 36 after falling into a diabetic coma and a 9-disc box set of his complete Prestige recordings is a phenomenal document of his underappreciated career.  Coltrane went on to greater success, peaking with the transformative A Love Supreme, but was soon stricken with liver cancer from which he died at age 40 in 1967.  These two giants, criticized as they were in 1961, left behind some of the greatest music ever produced and this is a great document to show that.

México: The Festival of San Miguel Tzinacapan

Issued in 1996 on the great Ocora label from Radio France, which has issued some of the most amazing world music available, this recording from the village of San Miguel Tzinacapan, in the state of Puebla northeast of México City, is a reminder of the importance of going back to the essence of music as a part of some vital human activity.

In this case, the hour-and-fifteen-minute album is a showpiece for the Nahuat people, who live in the Sierra Norte Mountains and merge ancient indigenous traditions with more modern European ones in the annual celebration of the festival of San Miguel (St. Michael.)  It is also good for us to remember that music and dance, as well as pageantry, theatrical presentation and others, are usually not separated in much of the world.

The performances here reflect Christian themes, as well as those relating to Spain of centuries ago, so the Santiago dances concern the Reconquista in which Spanish Christians battled to reclaim their land from the Muslim Moors, who conquered most of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century.  This is reflected in dialogues in the sons, or the compositions, between St. James and Pontius Pilate, but there is also the syncretic aspect of words in Nahuatl, a language of the broader indigenous Uto-Aztecan family.

There are also dances related to bullfighting, to St. Michael the Archangel battling evil angels the voladores invoking indigenous gods of water and the negrito concerning a Black teenager's treatment for a snake bite with African rituals.  Drums, flutes and bells are the main instruments and, while there was an indigenous clay flute, the ones used in the recording seem more European.  

Listening to music from other parts of the world feels educational as well as entertaining and this one is a transport to a place that holds on to ancient native traditions while adopting those of the colonizers, even as these are now from five centuries ago.

Alexander Scriabin: Mazurkas (Complete)

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was one of the many remarkable Russian musicians and composers of the late 19th and early 20th century, creating, as the empire was in rapid decline and revolution in the near future, some of the greatest music of the era.  He was the son of a pianist and became a virtuoso on the instrument receiving, just barely past his teens, the Gold Medal, the highest honor of the famed Moscow Conservatory.

Later, he taught at the institution for several years before leaving to focus solely on writing and performing, including spending six years in western Europe and touring America in 1906.  He became fascinated by mystic teachings and abandoned religion to delve deeply into esoteric philosophy.  While Scriabin wrote a few symphonies, a pair of tone poems and some other pieces, he is best know for composing more than 200 works for the piano.

He wrote 23 mazurkas, the name coming from a fast-tempo Polish folk dance genre, and these date from 1888 to 1903 and these are redolent with beautiful melodies, strong emotion and, even as the liner notes that the young composer was under the spell of Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann, it adds that there is a distinctive characteristic of "poetic improvisation, full of magic and charm" and that, as the pieces became more complex and with greater feeling and atmosphere, Scriabin demonstrated the marks of a mature creator.

The pianist for this 1995 recording issued four years later by Naxos is Beatrice Long, a Taiwanese artist who teaches at the Brooklyn Conservatory for the campus there of the City University of New York, and her excellent playing is beautifully recorded.  Her rendering of these amazing short pieces has lately been a tonic for tense and troubled times and anyone seeking such a balm could benefit from listening to this excellent recording.

The Kinks: The Kink Kronikles

Years ago, a friend gave me the 1972 double-disc set, The Kink Kronikles, comprising 28 pieces from the last half of the Sixties and very early Seventies and, after a listen or two, it was put away and largely forgotten.  Why it didn't get more of my attention is baffling now, especially because as a long-time admirer of The Jam, it should've been abundantly clear to me just how much Paul Weller drew/nicked from one of his idols.  This hour-and-a-half recording is a staggering compilation of consistent greatness from a band that was part of the first British Invasion with proto-metal tunes like "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night," but moved into richer, deeper territory that left them far less appreciated stateside than such peers at The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and others.

Presumably, a major reason why The Kinks did not resonate as much with American listeners, excepting tunes like "Lola," is because they were "too British."  Principal songwriter Ray Davies crafted carefully constructed character studies coupled with remarkable instrumental touches steeped in music hall, as well as rock, and with the occasional horns or the vastly underappreciated keyboard work of frequent contributor Nicky Hopkins (who did this for the Stones and many others).

Davies told of British life in ways that were wistful, ironic, critical, comedic, wry and detached, yet trenchantly observant.  The other band members including Davies' brother Dave, whose guitar work is not always as recognized as it should be; drummer Mick Avory, bassists Peter Quaife and John Dalton and keyboardist John Gosling that could, though often after intense arguments or outright fisticuffs, adapt beautifully to his highly unusual and idiosyncratic methods and provide top instrumental accompaniment to these immersive works.

It should be added that Ray Davies is a preeminent songwriter, but three songs by Dave Davies, including "Death of a Clown," "Mindless Child of Motherhood," and "Susannah's Still Alive," are top-notch tunes, as well.  Those early 1964 hits, as well as "Tired of Waiting For You" and other tunes may not be here, but this album is filled to the gills with unforgettable and remarkable music, much of which should be better known here in the States.

Mary Halvorson Octet: Away With You

This remarkable composer and guitarist, who'd played her instrument since she was 11 years old, was studying biology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, when she took a class taught by the great multi-instrumentalist and composer Anthony Braxton (oft-featured here, though not as often as wished) and decided to change her career course.

Like her mentor, Halvorson writes and plays in a dizzying array of styles even if she, like Braxton, is generally considered a jazz musician.  She has a clear tone, a clean sound and is a masterful soloist and sensitive accompanist to the wide variety of players with which she associates, but she can also unleash wild and unorthodox solos that are dazzling.

As importantly, she is a very interesting writer with wide latitude for the improvisation that makes jazz such a great musical form, though she brings rock, flamenco and other genres into her mind-bending works.  Notably, Halvorson recently commented that she had a tendency in the past to overwrite in her compositions, but 2016's Away With You, released on Firehouse 12 Records, which has featured Braxton and many other great musicians (Tyshawn Sorey, Myra Melford, and co-founder Taylor Ho Bynum) on its roster.

With four horns (alto and tenor sax, trumpet and trombone), a pedal steel guitar and bass and drums, Halvorson creates a diverse palette of sound in the eight pieces on the recording.  Like Braxton and another great composer/musician Henry Threadgill, she deftly orchestrates for the several instruments in ways that are richly creative, sometimes spiky, often contemplative and always interesting with an unerring eye for experiment.

Alim Qasimov: Azerbaïdjan

Along with the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Pakistani Qawwali master singer, Alim Qasimov, who hails from Shamakha in the Central Asian republic of Azerbaïdjan (often rendered as Azerbaijan), is an amazing vocalist.

Qasimov did not come from a family of musicians, but his performances in the mugham tradition led him to the heights of recognition in his country while he was in his mid-twenties, including several genres as well as in playing the framed drum, or daf.  He has toured much of the world, including in Iran, where the mugham form began.

On this 1992 album from the remarkable Radio France label, Ocora, Qasimov is accompanied by the Mansurov brothers, Eisah on the kamancha, a bowed string instrument, and Malik on the tar, a plucked lute.  The trio, honing their skills in a partnership developed over years, perform seamlessly and telepathically, conveying the beauty and complexity of Azerbaijani mugham.  

Qasimov is obviously the central figure and his technique is stunning, projecting great clarity, enunciation, tone and emotion, as well as his remarkable improvised vocal effects.  It is said in the very informative liner notes by Jean During (who discusses Azerbaijani music, the instruments and the pieces) that, as is often true of master musicians, Qaismov and the Mansurovs were best appreciated in a large-scale live setting became of the impact they had on audiences.

Fred Tompkins: Curve Extended

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.

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 Poly-Currents 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.

That led me to purchase his 2006 recording, Curve Extended, 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.

The two "Con Moto" 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.

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.

Harriet Tubman: The Terror End of Beauty

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 Too Much Sugar for a Dime 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 Seize the Rainbow album (1987) and the Live in New York 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, Where's Your Cup?

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.

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.

The Terror End of Beauty 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.

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!

Tim Berne/Hank Roberts/Aurora Nealand: Oceans And

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.

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.

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.

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.

In many ways, the Oceans And 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.

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.

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, The Terror End of Beauty.

Gloria Coates: String Quartet No. 9/Sonata for Violin Solo/Lyric Suite for Piano Trio

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.

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.

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.

Peter Brötzmann Trio : For Adolphe Sax

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, For Adolphe Sax (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.

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.

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.

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 For Adolph Sax 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.

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.

Scorn: Evanescence/Ellipsis

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.

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.

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.

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 Gyral), it doesn't have that feel to this listener. 

 

The success of Evanescence invited a remix album, Ellipsis, 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.  

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.

John Coltrane: A Love Supreme, Live in Seattle

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, A Love Supreme.  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.

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.

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.

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 Ascension, Om, and Meditations, 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.

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 My Favorite Things or his Standards album, but it is fascinating to follow him in those last years and this is a revelation for that era.

Japan: Nagauta

This is another incredible release on the Ocora label from Radio France and features four long pieces (nagauta), ranging from 12 to over 31 minutes, of pieces performed in the Kabuki theater, along with classical dance.  Intense vocals accompanied by the shamisen, 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.

The Kineya Ensemble includes a quartet of vocalists and shamisen 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.

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.

Iannis Xenakis: Chamber Music, 1955-1990

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.

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."

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.

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.

Agents with False Memories

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.

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 Step, Write, Run double-disc of works under his Alphaphone label).

One of the more interesting of his releases during this era was 1996's Agents with False Memories, 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 The Conversation (1994) that was the last album until Kirk resurrected the name and released the very strong Shadow of Fear in 2020.  In turn, they might well be descendants of his 1982 solo work, "Dead Relatives."

Agents with False Memories 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 The Birth of a Nation, 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.

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, Mr. Arkadin.  Kirk was fascinated by Welles, as found, just with a couple of examples, Cabaret Voltaire's take on the theme from A Touch of Evil and Kirk's "Sons of Harry Lime" as rendered by Orchestra Terrestrial on his Intone label's Unreleased Projects, Volume 3.

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, BN9Drone and Dekadrone, 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 Agents with False Memories a definite highlight.

Miles Davis Quintet: 1965-'68, The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings

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.

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.

Starting with E.S.P. and concluding with Filles de Kilimajaro, 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.

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."

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.

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, 1+1, 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.