Gnawa Music of Marrakesh: Night Spirit Masters

Another essential item from the Axiom Records catalog of world music recordings, courtesy of the production efforts of Bill Laswell and his associate Richard Horowitz, is the mindblowing and otherworldly 1990 album Night Spirit Masters, credited to Gnawa Music of Marrakesh.

The producers and engineers traveled to Morocco and, according to the liners, made the recording in the "Medina of Marrakesh," the historic and cultural core of that ancient city with its component parts dating back to the 11th Century and which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Using a 12-track digital recorder, handled by Billy Youdelman, whose engineering credits date to Bob Dylan's 1978 Street Legal album, as well as recordings for Little Feat, the Eagles, Dionne Warwick, Leonard Cohen, Warren Zevon, and several of Laswell's projects, including the Herbie Hancock record, Future Shock, and others, the team recorded musicians in the public setting.  Youdelman does a truly impressive job of recording and the mixing and mastering are also essential in creating a beautiful sound from beautiful music.

Interestingly, some observers have viewed Night Spirit Masters as a Westernized version of Gnawa, as if some elements of the fusion of the sound was somehow illegitimate.  Yet, the very nature of Gnawa music is fusionist--it came from black slaves from Mali taking their native sounds and then mixing them with the Arabic and Islamic elements found in Morocco.  

Instruments include the sintir (a three-stringed lute functioning as a bass), the darbuka or goblet drum, other percussion instruments, as well as hand claps and chanted and sung vocals comprise a music that is repetitive, highly rhythmic and percussive, and often building in tempo and intensity as a form of religious ritual involving dance as well as music to induce a trance state of ecstacy.

The tightness of these musicians, true masters of their form, and the excellent recording quality make this album, whether overly "Westernized" or not, really enjoyable, captivating and hypnotic.  The first two pieces includes the sintir, drumming and vocals, with the second, "Mimoun Mamrba" featuring that gradual increase in tempo that is a hallmark of the sound.  "Tramin" is a three-minute piece of trio drumming that shows an interesting polyrhythmic approach.

Track four, however, is the highlight of the album and this listener well remembers the powerful effect "Chabako" had way back in 1990 or thereabouts when this six-minute masterpiece evoked a frenzied response from its moderate sintir opening, augmented by hand cymbals, the oud (another stringed lute, but of higher pitches than the sintir), the call-and-response vocals which built slowly and surely from a medium tempo to faster and faster levels until you all but had to jump up and find some way to keep up with the transformation.  It is easy to understand why Gnawa music is trance-inducing from this piece alone.

Another like-minded tour de force is "Baniya," another six-minute transportive exercise in ecstasy with the larger ensemble like that found in "Chabako" and with a catchier melody than the former.  The two sintir and quartet volcals of "Jillala" is another excellent song with a duet drum piece following.  Then comes another breathtaking large group work called "Hamouda" that closes the album in much the same way, as "Chabako" and "Baniya" had.

In all, this is a nice selection of pieces with varied personnel, instrumentation, and tempi.  To an ignorant Westerner, this is a great experience in hearing music from a part of the world that has so much interface between societies in terms of trade, warfare, food, and music, whether it is considered "authentic" or not.  Paul Bowles, an American composer and write who lived for over 50 years in Tangier and authored the famed novel, The Sheltering Sky, provides brief notes about the people and the music that proved helpful to the novice who bought this album twenty plus years back.

Bill Laswell and cohorts (including Chris Blackwell and Island Records, who funded the Axiom catalog) are to be recognized once again for introducing music that broadens the horizons and expands the ear beyond what is exposed to in all-Western forms.

Sam Rivers: Trio Live

It was almost a year ago, at the end of 2011, that the underrecognized Sam Rivers died at the age of 88.  A multi-instrumentalist, who played tenor and soprano saxopones, flute and piano, Rivers came up in the jazz ranks in Boston, but remained a little-known figure elsewhere until his former sideman, the teenage drum phenom Tony Williams, recruited him to join the Miles Davis Quintet in 1964, when Rivers was already 40.

While Rivers' tenure with Davis was short, because his playing just was too free for the leader's tastes, it is definitely worth hearing the long-delayed release Miles in Tokyo, which demonstrates just how inventive and distinctive Rivers' sound was.

After that brief period with Davis, though, Rivers was signed to Blue Note Records and delivered some interesting, if not particularly high selling, albums during the mid-1960s.  After another period of obscurity, the Impulse! label signed him in 1973 and a couple of fascinating live albums were released, including Streams, which was this blogger's introduction to this amazing performer some twenty years ago.

However, the Trio Live album, while somewhat similar in structure of the group and arrangement of the pieces, is just a bit better.

The first three pieces, a suite called "Hues of Melanin," present 44 minutes of perfomance at Yale University in November 1973 and teamed Rivers with the supple and creative Cecil McBee on bass and the polyrhythmic and vigorous drumming of Barry Altschul.  McBee was also outstanding on Streams, which also featured future disco-era hit maker Norman Connors on the traps.  While some suggest that Connors was not suited for Rivers' style, and this may be true, Altschul did seems a better fit.

The rhythm section does do a great job creating an accompaniment that holds up to Rivers' prodigious playing.  It's one thing to be a master of a chosen instrument, but Rivers was spectacular on three.  His tenor playing was truly his own, not sounding like any of the masters before him, and his navigation from the lower to the higher ranges is impeccable, though on Trio Live, he only played this instrument on one five-plus minute section of this concert.  

In the 34-minute first section, he plays expansive on both soprano sax and flute and, on the former, he displays a stamina, clarity and expressiveness that would give such better-known masters as Steve Lacy and John Coltrane a run for their money.  His flute playing is also excellent and it is on this instrument that he tended, in these extremely free trio performances (the only type, he said, where he felt he could be truly free) to engage in a stream-of-consciousness series of yelps, screams, and other forms of vocalizing that might turn some listeners off, though it strikes this listener as a joyful reaction to the freedom he and his bandmates were enjoying.

While there is no comparing him to any of the greats, his piano section, comprising just over four minutes, finds him playing quite well, with flowing, graceful lines that cascade and flow easily and attractively.

The last two pieces are called "Suite for Molde" and take in just under 20 minutes of a show at the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway in August 1973 with Arild Anderson playing bass.  Anderson plays well and works smoothly with Rivers and Altschul, with his bowed work on the second part meshing nicely with that of Rivers, though he doesn't have the strength and elasticity of McBee (but, then, few bassists did.)  This work has over half the time, denoted as part two, devoted to Rivers playing tenor and he is simply awesome here, ranging rapidly and mightily on this highly expressive and emotive instrument. 

But, Rivers' work on the first part with the subtitle "Onyx" used for the soprano sax portion and "Topaz" for the flute section.  It would be interesting to know just what the bandleader felt distinguished each by the names of the precious metals, while perhaps the denotation of "Ivory Black" for the piano section of "Hues for Melanin" seems obvious, while the term "Violet" for the tenor portion of that Yale performance might reflect something visceral and striking?

Those terms would aptly describe the entire recording and it is interesting to read Rivers' comments from the original 1978 liner notes:  "You can come out here and be an intuitive musician and be really happening, but your dreams and visions won't last forever.  If you don't get into the books and get this technical thing together while your intuitive things is happening, it's over."

This could be interpreted to mean that the spiritual vibe that animated much free jazz in the 1960s and early 1970s was driven more by the former quality, which has its virtues, but that the technical ability developed through much hard work and practice can take that intuitiveness and give it something more solid and substantial.  Conversely, technical talent alone, with the emotive power of intuitive improvisation, can come across as cold.  This might be an apt way to distinguish craftsmanship (technics) with artistry (intuitiveness), provided that the exceptional artist has both.

That, the great Sam Rivers had in overflowing abundance on these performances.

Lull: Moments

Mick Harris became known as the insanely fast drummer for the notorious 80s grindcore pioneers Napalm Death, but, after leaving the band in 1991, largely put away his drumsticks and took up electronic music. 

Harris formed Scorn with Napalm Death's first bassist, Nic Bullen, and had some success with albums like Evanescence that established a form of electronica that was slower in tempo, heavier in atmospherics and darker in subject matter.  While Scorn continued as a Harris solo project after Bullen departed in 1995 until Harris decided to end the project last year, he has also embarked on many other solo and collaborative projects over the years, many of which will be highlighted here later. 

Other notable projects include the remarkable Painkiller with saxophonist John Zorn and bassist Bill Laswell, both incredibly prolific and diverse performers, with this trio essentially lasting about four years.  Harris played live drums in this outfit, one of the very few instances in whichhe continued to do so after he left Napalm Death, but his departure was largely predicated on his continued dislike of his performance on the kit.  Remarkably, there was a one-off reunion of Painkiller in Paris in 2008, which appears not to have been recorded.  There will be Painkiller music detailed here in the future, as well.

As will another exceptional collaboration involving a trifecta of recordings with former Eyeless in Gaza vocalist Martyn Bates called Murder Ballads.  This 1995-98 project was a modern update of the folk murder ballad, which was popular centuries ago, and Bates' crooning of lyrics dealing with all manner of human crimes outside the pale of polite society are well-matched by eerie, droning, slowly evolving soundscapes crafted by Harris.

Other notable works are efforts with such artists as Eraldo Bernocchi, James Plotkin, Laswell, and Neil Harvey, some of which venture into the so-called "drum-n-bass" territory, while others were more ambient.  In any case, Harris' discography is diverse and broad within the general spectrum of electronic music and has a small, but very devoted fanbase.

Another early endeavor was Lull, which has been termed by those who cannot live without labels as isolationist or darkwave, whatever those are supposed to mean.  Actually, the former does, perhaps, hint at a key element in the music, which involves washes of sound, bass-like rumblings which can shake the speakers, eerie background noises and an achingly slow development of pulse that is usually almost entirely absent of a pronounced beat.  From the earliest effort, Dreamt About Dreaming (1992) to the most recent release Like a Slow River (2008), the Lull project has been one that has experimented with the fringes of ambience, but far removed from the new age-like productions that lie on the furthest end of the spectrum from what Harris has concocted.

To those attuned to this music, it can be extraordinarily beautiful and, yet, is also can be disturbing and unsettling to others who might not be prepared for the starkness of the sounds.  For this listener, Lull has been an object of fascination because it is transportive music and creates its own world of truly immersive sound.  It does not lend itself to the background or to systems that lack a decent low-end.  In the case of YHB, the music is best heard on the home system with a nice set of Klipsch bookshelf speakers that deliver excellent performance on that low-end and works pretty well even in the car, which has a decent system.

The epitome of the Lull experience to this enthusiast is the 1998 Relapse Records release, Moments, the fifth album in the project.  This 62-minute work is divided into 99 tracks, but it really is, like its predecessor Continue, a work that is a continuous piece embracing all the hallmarks of the sound Harris had developed with Lull from its beginnings.  Notably, the album is said to have been inspired by the soundtrack to the impenetrable, but highly immersive film Eraserhead and it would be interesting to watch the film with Moments playing along with it (actually, this blogger was so close to playing the album for Halloween for any trick-or-treaters who might come by, but there are so few typically and they're mostly small kids who would likely be too frightened to even approach the house.)

It does not seem particularly meaningful to try and describe the music anymore than what is stated above, other than to say that, if one is prepared to give this album (and the other Lull recordings) a dedicated listen and is open to being taken somewhere that can be dark, foreboding and, yet, also captivating and, yes, starkly beautiful, hearing Moments can be one of those moments that expands the horizons of listening to music in an utterly transformative way.

Elliott Carter: The Minotaur

Still active as a centenarian, the remarkable American composer Elliott Carter died last week at 103.  His work has been characterized as complex and difficult and, to varying degrees, this is true with "modern music" generally, but there is a great breadth and depth to Carter's work over many decades.  For Carter, polyphony, with different sounds emerging from elements of an orchestra, and contrasting and varied rhythms and tonalities working within different sections, became his hallmark.  So, as is the case with so much recent music, it also takes some recalibration of a listener's ears to appreciate what is going on when one is used to hearing music the "traditional" way.

Consequently, it might be easier to start with Carter by delving into his earlier music and this Elektra Nonesuch recording from 1992 offers selections from the composer's 1940s work, when he was starting to be recognized as an emerging new voice.  And, while the music is not as "challenging" as what came later, especially in the 1960s, it is possible to hear where Carter was going.

While his ballet, The Minotaur, was not often performed, it had its roots in 1946 with the famed impresario George Balanchine, who worked with Carter on the thematic conception based on Greek mythology.  Just as the process was undertaken, however, Balanchine was invited to be a guest ballet master with the Paris Opera and the work of choreographing The Minotaur fell to his assistant, John Taras and the work premiered in March 1947.  Even though performances were few, Carter did rework the music into a concert suite, recorded here in 1988.

The stately melodic statement is striking and memorable and the work overall is about as traditional as Carter ever came.  While this might strike some people as an aberration and not essential to the composer's body of work, YHB, with all of his ignorance about the technical niceties of classical composition, enjoys The Minotaur as a balanced blend of so-called neo-classicism with modern elements.

There is a bit of a diversion with two of three short pieces accompanying poems of the great Robert Frost.  They are beautifully rendered by mezzo soprano Jan De Gaetani and pianist Gilbert Kalish and would seem entirely out of place perhaps if not followed by Carter's Piano Sonata.

This is a generally romantic piece in two movements, and yet again, infused with some of the variable rhythms, harmonic elements and coloration that foresaw the composer's later development.  But, it is a nice balance with gorgeous lyricism, stately cadenzas, rapid passages abruptly turning into slow, halting ones, so that the marking of tempo is not at all strictly observed, but that's part of the interest generated by these shifting sounds.  Pianist Paul Jacobs plays beautifully and the recording quality is excellent, as well.

The Piano Sonata is generally considered Carter's major achievement in his earlier period and it is a very fine work, elegantly rendered here.  But, The Minotaur is also very enjoyable, whether heard as accompaniment to modern ballet or on its own terms.  Future posts will concern Carter's work in the 1960s and in more recent years, in which the complexity grew tremendously, but also brought him  acclaim as one of the more versatile and appreciated modern composers.

May the amazing Elliott Carter, creator of so much wonderful music for so many years, rest in peace and may his music be heard for many centuries to come.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party: Intoxicated Spirit

The Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a legend in his native Pakistan and somewhat known in other parts of the world before some of his music appeared in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking and turned him into something of a phenomenon even in the U. S.

Born in 1948, Nusrat was a member of a family steeped deeply for centuries in the tradition of qawwali, a form of music which came out of the mystical traditions of Sufi Islam, and which arose in the Persian Empire and then spread to popularity in South Asia.  The devotional nature of qawwali has often been misunderstood because lyrics appear to refer to earthly love and intoxication from the overuse of wine, but instead are infused with metaphors for spiritual concerns cloaked in secular language.  The lyrics of qawaali can be generally aligned with translations of such Sufi poetry as that of the great master, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the Persian poet, jurist, theologian and mystic of the 13th century, when the Arab world was among the most advanced in the world and far beyond the Europe of the so-called Dark Ages.

Musically, the structure of the party is along the lines of having a lead singer (Nusrat), side singers and a harmonium (formerly the sarangi) player in a front row and a group of backup singers and percussionists in a rear row.  While there are portions of pieces that are arranged and predetermined, there is also considerable room for improvisation by everyone, with the singer punctuating the lyrics with vocal effects of a breathtaking variety and Nusrat was the indisputed master in his realm, even as he modernized elements of the performances while firmly rooting his work in tradition.  He leads his background singers in chants and call-and-response sections that are part of the trance-inducing magic of the music.

As befits a mysticallly-oriented recording, the pieces start slowly and quietly with the lead vocals laying the melodic and lyrical groundwork and the remainder of the performers providing their accompaniment.  Over time through generally long pieces (20-30 minutes can be typical on recordings, though not necessarily so in live performance, during which songs can go on much longer, not unlike the Indian raga) the intensity builds as the lead singer uses a volume, power and a variety of vocalizing techniques that are not found in Western musics, and which provide a soaring, penetrating and intense quality of inspiration and expression, while the other musicians increase the volume and speed of the rhythms and harmonic accompaniment to keep the lead singer moving upwards into flights of ecstacy.

With Nusrat and Party, the art of the qawaali is at its peak with his unparallelled voice rising and gliding above and within the steady handclaps, hand percussion, and harmonium played by the other performers.  Generally, there are two commonly-available types of recordings to acquire for those who want to experience the transcendent, uplifting and otherworldly sounds of Nusrat and Party. 

The most popular were those issued by Peter Gabriel's Real World label and, while some of these adhere to the traditional format of Pakistani qawaali, others bring in, if usually very sensitively, Western musicians and instrumentation.  Future posts will include some of these recordings, which are consistently high-quality and excellent vehicles for presenting Nusrat's music to a larger worldwide audience, as befits the Real World philosophy and output.

For those looking to listen to Nusrat and Party in the traditional presentation style, there are harder-to-find releases on the Shanachie label, best known generally for its reggae releases, and which licensed four albums from Pakistani sources and released most of them in the midst of Nusrat's mid-90s popularity.  This listener was fortunate enough to discovery Nusrat in the very early part of that decade, through the first Shanachie album, a studio effort called The Day, The Night, The Dawn, The Dusk (1991.)  In this vein, but because it is a live recording, the 1996 release, Intoxicated Spirit, is a good place to indulge in the more "indigenous" type of qawaali made by the group made in Pakistan before Nusrat acquired the brief fame in the West that ended with his untimely passing at only age 48 in Summer 1997.

Intoxicated Spirit features four tracks, the first two of which are 23 and 24 minutes respectively, while the others are 12 and 14 minutes.    The centerpiece of the album clearly is the first piece, Yeh Jo Halka Halka, in which the lengthy translated lyrics are reprinted and have to, again, be seen metaphorically not as an earthbound love song, but as a mystical paean to the religious ecstacy sought by devotees of Sufism.  The steady and building rhythms, the beautiful harmonium work, and, naturally, Nusrat's amazing singing are on full display on this opening song.

The next track, Ruk Pe Rehmat Ka, is lengthier than the first, but also is more subdued and introspective for a longer period before building into that ecstatic display of finely-honed rhythmic intensity and Nusrat's staggering improvisational vocalisations.

The last piece, Meri Saqi Saqi Yeh, is unusual in the sense that it brings in the more traditional, but displaced, sarangi, a stringed instrument that is played with a bow, but which also has to be retuned between pieces, hence the popularity of the harmonium, which doesn't require the retuning.  There is also the use of a zither or qanun, and the use of these instruments gives a notable difference in sound to the song in comparison to the others.

The loss of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to cardiac arrest following kidney and liver failure at a relatively young age was immensely felt among devotees of the music and the Sufi tradition.  While others continue to successfully perform the music, notably including his nephew, Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the visibility of qawaali during that brief period in the mid-90s when Nusrat was a worldwide phenomenon is unlikely to be at that level again.  Fortunately, his recordings can be enjoyed and appreciated and the depth, passion, technique and earnestness of this great artist will live on.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan:  Intoxicated Spirit (Shanachie, 1996)

1.  Yeh Jo Halka Halka  23:00
2.  Ruk Pe Rehmat Ka  24:00
3.  Be Wafa  12:00
4.  Meri SAqi Saqi Yeh  14:00

Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert

The recent post on Cecil Taylor's solo masterpiece, Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within), is a nice (!) comparison and contrast to this one on another pianist whose solo work has been acclaimed.  Keith Jarrett has, however, had a far larger audience than Taylor because his music has not been perceived to have been near as adventurous (though, at times, Jarrett has alienated some of his longtime followers by excursions into freer, more atonal material, though nothing near as "out" as Taylor at his most accessible.)

While it might be easy for devotees of one to suggest that their favorite is superior to the other, YHB enjoys the music of both for different reasons, not the least of which is whatever mood happens to suggest listening to one as opposed to the other.  Taylor and Jarrett, different as they may be, are both possessed of protean talents, able to improvise entire solo concerts with prodigious technical abilities, and, as importantly, throw themselves completely into what they do.  It is this latter quality which seems most impressive to this blogger, because there are many excellent pianists who can improvise with imagination and precision, but these two inhabit a plane that is elevated because of their total commitment and immersion in the power of the moment when they dazzle in that solo concert setting.

Jarrett, born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1946, was a child prodigy on his instrument and made his first splash in the jazz world as a member of the popular Charles Lloyd Quartet in the mid-1960s.  He started his solo career about 1967, though was a member of the electric Miles Davis group in 1970, despite his public dislike of electric pianos and organs, and appeared on such recordings as Live-Evil.  In the earl 1970s, he agreed to record for a brand new German label, ECM, ran by Manfred Eicher, and the partnership has been a 40-year success for both.  Of the dozens of Jarrett released on the label, his solo works and the "standards trio" he has worked with for over 30 years, including bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack deJohnette, have been his most successful endeavors.

Jarrett's 1975 recording, The Köln Concert, is generally acclaimed as perhaps his greatest work.  For an hour and ten minutes, the pianist takes the listener on an exploration of many melodic and rhythmic concepts that, to some, preface the coming of "new age" music, though, to this listener, the recording has no relation to so-called "new age."  All that comes to mind is that the wildly experimental work of Taylor or the heavier and denser, but also highly melodic, work of McCoy Tyner might leave the impression that, comparatively speaking, Jarrett's lighter touch and use of silence and space appear to be a precursor to, say, George Winston.

Really, though, Jarrett's playing is beautiful, hypnotic, inventive and brimming with passion, exemplified by the grunts, groans, shouts and other manifestations of emotion that are highly annoying to some, as are the visual representations in which Jarrett writhes, wriggles and otherwise contorts himself as he channels the spirit of the moment.  It doesn't appear in any way to YHB that any of this is contrived, but these aspects of his performances, as well as some of his interview and liner note statements lead some to conclude that Jarrett falls prey to a form of self-indulgence that detracts from the experience of listening.  Without disputing anyone's right to feel that way, obviously, YHB can only say that these aspects of the musician seem totally honest and deeply-held and do not take away from the enjoyment of this incredible musician's work.

In fact, for all of the exciting playing on The Köln Concert, it may be as equally impressive that Jarrett did this under very difficult conditions.  He had a long, draining drive to the German city after playing a show a few days before in Switzerland.  Jarrett also had a serious back injury that required him to wear a brace, yet the pain was still so intense that he had very little sleep during the trip and he very nearly cancelled the show, which took place on 24 January. 

Moreover, his request for a particular type of Bosendorfer piano was followed by the obtaining of the wrong instrument, which was so poor, that Jarrett had to find ways to make up for deficiencies in the bass range by playing ostinatos and rolling rhythms with the left hand.  He also used vamps of a single chord or two for long periods of time, the repetitiveness of which often draws criticism, but which, to this listener, are part of establishing a deep, solid groove against which the derive his beautiful sweeping melodies.  In fact, his melodies often seem folk-like or have a tinge of country or rock in them and his classical training also appears to take much of the playing away from the syncopated rhythms associated with jazz (in quite a different way, Cecil Taylor's classical training leads him to play in ways that seem removed from most jazz piano, as well.)

This may account for Jarrett's unusual popularity--this recording, the best selling of any solo piano work period, much less that of jazz, has sold nearly 4 million units--in the fact that his playing is more "accessible" than that of other jazz pianists.  Those long repetitive chords in rhythm and his sprightly melodic sense have, some jazz lovers complained, been more pop or rock than jazz should be.  As if jazz has ever had a fixed set of criteria for pianists to follow.  One can run the gamut from Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner to untold others and then figure out whether there is a standard approach to how to play "jazz piano" and apply that to Jarrett (or, for that matter, to Brad Mehldau, who does just fine working with pop and rock songs in innovative and exciting ways, too.)

There are many other remarkable Keith Jarrett solo recordings out there (Vienna, Sun Bear, Radiance and the recent Sol come to mind), but the Köln is the one that has the biggest impact on fans (and, perhaps, the most resistance from critics.)  To this listener, it is one of the signal jazz recordings of any type and testament to the talent of one of the most imaginative and inspired musicians anywhere.

The Orb: The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld

One of the quirkier, ambient, spacier (drug-wise and other-wise), humorous and irreverent of the major electronica acts that burst forth from England in the late 1980s and early 1990s, The Orb found a pretty substantial audience for its debut record, The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, which came out in 1991, but featured several tracks that had long been known as singles on the British house scene.

The Orb was initially a partnership between DJ Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty, of the well-known duo The KLF.  The two split in a disagreement on how to present their music for a first album and Paterson went on to do some work with former Killing Joke member Martin Glover, also known as Youth.  Kris Weston (under the moniker of "Thrash") and Andy Falconer then joined Paterson as a full member of The Orb, with guitarist Steve Hillage, associated with the so-called Canterbury music scene of the early 1970s, but also a record producer and electronica performer, as well, making contributions, as did producer Thomas Fehlmann.

Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is replete with unusual electronic sounds and samples from a wide range of sources from music, film, and even bible reading recordings.  A thinly-disguised admiration, repeated in various ways over the years, for the music of Pink Floyd is visually demonstrated with an enhanced photo of the Battersea Power Station, which was presented on the album cover of the Floyd album, Animals and in the song title "Back Side of the Moon."

The two-disc release, originally produced for British and European released (the American version was a single-disc version), begins with the memorable "Little Fluffy Clouds," by Paterson and Glover, which uses as its centerpiece a strange interview with singer Rickie Lee Jones and her recollections of the clouds in her childhood home in Arizona.  There are, however, three other samples, including one of harmonica sounds from an Ennio Morricone piece and another from the remarkable composition "Electric Counterpoint," written by the great Steve Reich and played by guitarist Pat Metheny (and which will be the subject of a post at some time.)  Jones' management sued over the use of the sample of her voice, which led to speculation that she was high when she gave the interview (Jones claimed she had a bad cold), while Reich was pleased to be sampled, but also demanded a quarter of any royalties for the piece.

From there, the music consists of washes of electronic sound, generally subdued rhythms as well as more upfront sampled and electronic drum sounds, dub-like effects, occasional guitar treatments and a wide array of samples from the film Flash Gordon (including the delighfully devious intonation of the word "earth" by actor Peter Wyngarde), bible readings, and snippets of such varied musical sources as The Sex Pistols, jazz pianst Bill Evans, dub master Lee "Scratch" Perry, baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, and most notably, the 1970s soul ballad "Loving You" and the 5 and 1/2 octave range of its singer, Minnie Riperton, who had died years before the release of The Orb's record, but whose management sued to have her vocals removed from the recording, so a copy vocal was used instead on later versions.

One of the distinctive features of the record is that it is continuous and this merging of one piece to another, provided one enjoys the kind of "ambient house" that made this album a seminal one in that "genre", gives it a unified and cohesive structure.  The ambient feeling of the record is best exemplified in the live recording of the oft-heralded "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld," whic had the Riperton sample (as well as from the Grace Jones hit "Slave to the Rhythm") and is centered on a hypnotic, looping groove.

Ambient music has become a fascination, in varied forms, for this blogger and this record, in the U.S. version purchased in 1991, was one of the earliest exposures to it, aside from some of the essential work done by Cabaret Voltaire years before.  The Orb will be featured again in this blog, but Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld remains high (pardon the pun) on the list of memorable electronic albums among many enjoyed by YHB.

The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld: Double Album (Island Records, 1991)

Orbit Compact Disc

Earth Orbit One:  Little Fluffy Clouds  4:27
Earth Orbit Two:  Earth (Gaia)  9:48
Earth Orbit Three:  Super Nova at the End of the Universe  11:56
Lunar Orbit Four:  Back Side of the Moon  14:15
Lunar Orbit Five:  Spanish Castles in Space:  15:06

Ultraworld Compact Disc

Ultraworld Probe Six:  Perpetual Dawn  9:32
Ultraworld Probe Seven:  Into the Fourth Dimension  9:15
Ultraworld Probe Eight:  Outlands  8:23
Ultraworld Nine:  Star 6 & 7 8 9  8:10
Ultraworld Ten:  A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld: Live Mix MK 10  18:49

Iannis Xenakis: Works for Piano

Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), who fought in the resistance against the Axis powers during World War II, during which he lost an eye, and then moved to France, where he remained for the duration of his life was a trained architect and engineer, an enthusiast of mathematics and computers, and a composer.  This remarkable combination of skills and interests marked him as one of the most formidale and controversial of postwar music.

Born to Greek parents in Romania, Xenakis entered a boarding school in Greece at ten and was just preparing his college work in architecture and engineering, while also expressing an interest in music, when the war broke out and Greece was occupied by German forces until 1944.  Xenakis actually lost his left eye from a shell when the British occupation of Greece took place and he was protesting against their presence, despite England's role in ousting the Axis powers, because the British favored restoring the Greek monarchy while Xenakis and others preferred another path (he was then a Communist.)

Xenakis was able to continue his university studies, completing his engineering degree in 1947, but the Greek government's program to round up former members of the resistance, led him to flee the country and settle in France.  In the militaristic Greek postwar period, Xenakis was sentenced to death, then to a long prison term (of course, in absentia) before being pardoned when civilian government returned in the 1970s.

In Paris, Xenakis found work with the famed architect Le Courbusier and worked on some major architectural projects, while simultaneously studying harmony, counterpoint and composition.  After such major figures as Nadia Boulanger, Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud rejected his unusual approaches to music, a sympathetic soul was found in Olivier Messiaen, who encouraged his student to apply his architectural and mathematical skills to the serialism that was embraced by Xenakis.

By the mid-1950s, Xenakis was becoming recognized for his work, including Metastaseis (1953-54.)  He also began working with electronic sound, in what was generally called musique concrete.  He also became a noted teacher as well as a composer and was deeply interested in the use of computer programming and complicated mathematical formulas to develop scores.  Even though this mechanical approach might appear to have the makings of producing music absent of human feeling, Xenakis' ability to program mathematical formulas did not leave that impression, unless modern music leaves the listener cold, regardless of how the composition is created.

Although most of his work was done in France, Xenakis did have a several-years stint teaching at Indiana University in the late 1960s and early 1970s and for three years in the later 70s in England.  He also wrote several treatises on musical concepts.

Xenakis referred to his complex, densely rhythmic, heavily timbral music as "stochastic," meaning that there was a major element of indeterminacy, perhaps in open scoring or alternate systems of notation as well as the complex mathematical equations used, often fed into computers, within an overall structure.  So, unlike John Cage's sense of indeterminacy, where randomness completely rules the roost, Xenakis has a logical ordering of a piece based on mathematical and other scientific models but with a measure of chance operations. 

At the same time, Xenakis considered himself an ancient Greek soul in a modern body and was heavily influenced by Greek and Byzantine music, the latter coming from his youthful exposure to the Greek Orthodox Church, as well as ancient Greek mathematical concepts from the great Pythagoras, who related music and numbers in his work.

Later in his career, Xenakis, who used logical concepts involving game theory, algebraic ideas, vector analysis, and other methods previously, began to use visual imagery, called "arborescences" in his compositions and the images of sound were shown as roots, branches and other tree-like components that found a way to tie in his unusual ideas in a form distinct from traditional scores and also paved the way for a composition technique called UPIC, in which an electromagnetic pen was used on a specialized table for creating shapes that were computer manipulated into sounds immediately.  He also composed using light and lasers in some works.

For this rank amateur, the finer points of Xenakis' many techniques is almost always elusive, but the reaction to the music is still one of wonder, surprise, awe and, occasionally, exasperation in trying to read about the technical aspects while trying to listen and appreciate the powerful mind of the composer.

One way, perhaps, to best fuse the challenging music of Xenakis with an emotional reach is through his works for piano, an instrument that seems to best connect intellectually and emotionallly for the listener.  Part of a fine series of the composer's work from the Mode label is the Works for Piano compilation, rleased in 1999.  Featuring the work of a longtime student and friend, Aki Takahashi, this recording presents six pieces, most from the 1970s and 1980s, excepting the solo "Herma" from the early 1960s.  Four of the works are solos for Takahashi, while one pairs her with violinist Jane Peters and the other, "Palimpsest," finds her with percussion, strings and wind instruments.

For this listener, the first three pieces are the best with "Herma" and "Evryali" allowing Takahashi to use her formidable talents bringing these complicated works to life in a way that taps into the emotional expressiveness of the piano, even with highly complex, modern compositions.  Similarly, the duet of piano and the emotive violin of Peters on "Dikhthas" is notable and the nearly 15-minute piece moves so well that it seems far shorter, at least to these ears, than that.  Truthfully, the other works are also fine, with the combination of varied instruments on "Palimpsest" providing a needed break and contrast to the solo and duet work found elsewhere.  And, the closer, the short "A.R. (Hommage a Ravel)," gives Takahashi the environment for virtuoso work in chains of extremely rapid notes with breaks of long extended chords and then finishing with more fast runs ending with a jarring low cluster of notes at the end.

Iannis Xenakis was a prolific composer with a varied portfolio employing a wide range of techniques and applications--his work will be featured here again several times.  If there is a way to get "introduced" to his music to new listeners, this piano-centric release might be the best avenue, although, truthfully, its very modern approach might be forbidding regardless.  If a listener is up for the challenge, though, the music can be very rewarding and enlightening.

Foday Musa Suso: Hand Power

The music of the kora, a 21-string bridge harp made from half of a large calabash covered by a cow skin for resonance and then strung on a long neck, is one of the most beautiful in the world.  Emanating from the jali or griots, that is, master musicians, from west Africa, the music of the kora is immediately identifiable by anyone who knows the western harp.

One of the better-known griots to worldwide audiences is Foday Musa Suso from Gambia, who is also an oral historian, singer, and composer, heralded for his maintenance of Mandingo traditions, while also incorporating western influences that complement the traditional instruments he plays.  It is said that his direct ancestor Madi Wlen Suso invented the kora over 400 years ago. 

Although Suso's father was also a master kora player, it is not traditional for fathers to instruct their sons, so Suso was sent to another teacher and remained in study until he was 18.  For three years, he taught kora performance at a university in neighboring Ghana.  In 1977, he became the first jali to migrate to the United States, settling in Chicago, which happens to be the home of Flying Fish Records.  He formed the Mandingo Griot Society as part of his efforts to fuse west African and western music and also became an associate of the ubiquitous Bill Laswell, already featured in many posts of this blog.  Through Laswell, Suso recorded with Herbie Hancock, Ginger Baker and Pharoah Sanders and he also has worked with Paul Simon, the Kronos Quartet and many others.  His compositions were performed at the Olympic Summer Games in 1984 at Los Angeles and in Athens in 2004.

On 1984's Hand Power, Suso's fourth album and released in the U.S. on Flying Fish Records, the kora master plays a dozen instruments with overdubbing of from three to six of them on any one track.  In addition to the kora, Suso handles various percussion instruments and the western instruments of electric guitar and harmonica.  The six pieces are very close in length to one another, ranging generally around seven minutes and featuring Suso's lead vocals with support on two tracks from a backing vocalist.

Part of the griot tradition is what is called "praise singing" and all the tracks fall under this category, with the first giving credit to the founding president of independent Gambia, Sir Dawda Jawara.  The second "Tesito" invokes the title word as a call to his fellow Gambians to "redouble effort" in building up their country.  "Fatoto Camara Kunda" is about the family named Fataoto Camara.  "Julla Fasso" is a praise song for Suso's home village in Foday Kunda, Wali district.  The track "Tramakang" reaches back into ancient history to sing the praises of a great warrior from the Mali Empire in the 13th century.  Finally, "Ye Goni" refers to the music of dousongoni, as played in the village of Bambugu.

Traditional instruments do form the core of the album, with the electric guitar only used on "Tesito"  and the harmonica on "Ye Goni."  They blend in perfectly with the native instrumentation and provide a support and complementarity that provide the best in what fusion can be.  Indeed, his many collaborations with western musicians demonstrate this.  Now based in Seattle, Suso continues to actively promote his unique fusion of music and Hand Power is a great way to get introduced to this fantastic artist, who will be profiled here again in conjunction with other projects with Laswell.

Foday Musa Suso:  Hand Power (Flying Fish Records, 1984)

1.  Sir Dawda Jawara  6:39
2.  Tesito  6:53
3.  Fatoto Camara Kunda  7:06
4.  Julla Fasso  6:59
5.  Tramakang  6:54
6.  Ye Goni  7:07

Cecil Taylor: Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within)

The title is for the entirety of this astonishing 76-minute solo performance by Cecil Taylor, on what seems to be the 92-key (yes, 92) Bösendorfer piano that had the extra keys for Taylor to get in more of the wide-ranging orchestral sound for which he is (in)famous, appears to refer to the setting.

This mounumental performance took place on 20 August 1976 at an open-air festival at Moosham Castle in Austria (click here to see the official Web site with photos), which must have been a phenomenal setting and inspiration for the pianist.

Almost any of Taylor's music is challenging and really requires concentrated focus in listening.  For this reason, a lot of people who try listening to him are easily turned off.  His playing is complex, sometimes called atonal (though it doesn't appear that way to this listener), staggering in its technical abilities, and highly percussive and, as noted above, orchestral.  It is not a music providing obvious melodic and harmonic enjoyment.  The pleasure is in being drawn in and held captive to the all-encompassing world that is a Taylor performance, especially in these solo piano concerts.

In Taylor's somewhat cryptic poetry as liner notes, there are hints as to what is he about, or at least so it appears to YHB.  For example, he notes that "technique is weapon to do whatever / must be done/is self-determined / reflective of application / of ancient ritual within family."  It has been said that a Taylor concert or recording is a ritualistic experience. 

Elsewhere, he writes about the "ability to relate instantly, & build concomitant / sound structures: improvisation" and that the music is the "co-ordination of physique (muscles, the mind) / existing as one reasoned act thru erasure / of written note."  Taylor's phenomenal improvisational excursions are definitely the melding of the incredible responsiveness of mind and body in a "reasoned" way, not chaotic or anarchic, but built from years of practice and application.

When the pianist writes further of "Creating Music as sound within / the whole body; which must be brought / to level of total depersonalized realization . . .," it can be understood that Taylor totally devotes himself to playing in a way that has, it has often been reported, leaves him totally exhausted after an all-consuming performance.

The ritual as spiritual seems explained by his remark that "To Play what one hears is our objective Downward & inward are the forces bent to live as recognition of the invisible: spirit" as well as the idea that "sound as a language: communication / the total event being larger than the / combination of individual parts."  And, there is the matter of "trance is the unreasoning / reflection being possible / thru multi-layered / rhythmical complexes . . .

The experience of making music is "recognition of nuance, instinctive / ability relearned released, unchained / to then become forces moving as part of the Universe."  Finally, in the conclusion of these interesting liner notes-as-poetry, Taylor offers that "Improvisation is a tool of refinement / an attempt to capture 'dark' instinct / cultivation of the acculturated / to learn one's nature in response to / group (society) first hearing 'beat' / as it exists in each living organism."

If all this seems strange, abstractly mystical, and pretentious, it is, at least, Taylor's expression of feeling about this music and there is no reason to doubt his total commitment to its statements.  Knowing what Taylor has stated, whether in liner notes or interviews, and the commentary is almost never straightforward and simple, it might help to listen to the music while reading what the composer/performer writes.

One thing is for certain:  Cecil Taylor's world is a totally immersive one, both from the standpoint of his performances and what a listeners should probably be willing (maybe there's no choice?) to bring to the listening.  Branford Marsalis was once quoted as being profanely contemptible of Taylor's notion that a listener needed to prepare and practice before listening to one of the pianist's performances or recordings. 

Why would it be unreasonable for Taylor, who throws everything he has at a project, to expect a listener to come ready and able, through a concentrated effort, to be part of that experience?  At least you know his expectations and, if you're willing to accept the gauntlet, the results could be amazingly powerful.  Well, this blogger thinks so, but knows this is not music for everyone, which is not inherently bad, good or indifferent.

After hearing some thirty of Taylor's records over the years, this listeners feels that anything else than a great appreciaton or utter contempt is probably not realistic.  Can there be a middle ground with someone like Cecil Taylor?  Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within) is a tremendous record, if you are of a mind to take the all-consuming journey.  Otherwise, it would take just moments to decide not to.  This blogger is glad that, twenty or so years ago, the leap of faith was made.  It took a while, but the benefits have been manifold and welcomed.

Naked City: Torture Garden

When, in 1990, the effort by YHB to explore a wide variety of music (or, at least organized, sound) was launched, one of the earliest explorations into some of the more extreme forms of music/sound came with the Torture Garden album by Naked City.  And, at the time, it didn't get too much more extreme than this, though newer forms of music/sound make this stuff seem pretty quaint nowadays!

This project was spearheaded by the fantastically iconoclastic and polymusical (is that an actual word?) figures in modern music, alto saxophonist John Zorn, who had become infatuated with grindcore and other extreme forms of music/sound as exemplified by such groups as Godflesh and Napalm Death (whose original drummer, Mick Harris, will be featured here later, including in the remarkable trio PainKiller with Zorn and uber-bassist/producer Bill Laswell.)

Whereas many could argue that the musicianship in hardcore/grindcore/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-core may not be technically proficient (as if that matters,) the lineup that Zorn pulled together in Naked City is phenomenal.  Guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Fred Frith, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz and drummer Joey Baron are all masters of their respective instruments, though never heard in a context like this.  Joining the esteemed ensemble is vocalist Yamatsuka (Yamantaka) Eye of the legendary Japanese punk collective, The Boredoms.

In under 26 minutes, Naked City blasts, rips, tears, wails, careens, caterwauls, screams, and plows through forty-two "hardcore miniatures" that run the gamut of sounds that use or mirror music boxes, cartoon soundtracks, dub, jazz, country (yes, country), metal, and many other types/genres/varieties, often in the same forty-two second or eight-second tune.  Tempos abruptly shift, Eye's screams come and go, the tinkling of the piano's ivories give way to Frisell's wailing guitar, Baron's pounding drums segue into a dub beat, Frith's bass goes from fuzzy to jazzy to something more guttural and menacing, and Horvitz goes from that piano to an organ in seconds.  If anything, the only constants are Eye's "vocal" gesticulations and Zorn's wailing sax (though, on occasion, he peels off a calmer riff or two.)

As to the tunes, there are many notable examples of the Naked City aesthetic to bring up.  "Speedfreaks", in all of 52 seconds, is a cut-up mish-mash of every conceivable style Zorn can cram into it, but it's also fascinating, which can be said for the 48-second "The Prestidigitator" as well.  "NY. Flat Top Box" has a country shuffle feel for much of the piece, before some hardcore blasts interrupt, and then comes a sweet finale back to the earlier feel. "Hammerhead" is a 12-second blast of unalloyed noise.  The last several seconds of "The Blade" is Eye bellowing the most hair-raising scream perhaps on record (and, hence, gives the tune its title?] 

"Igneous Ejaculation" [yes, you have to accept some of these titles as part of the gallows humor that drives much of this music; if not, you're merely disgusted, but, then you'd have to see the cover art, too] is a prime example of Baron's spectacular drumming, which actually is well displayed throughout the album, such as in "Ujaku."  "Fuck the Facts" and "Blooduster" are more powerful bursts of propulsive and unforgiving hardcore. 

"Jazz Snob Eat Shit" along with "Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh" and "New Jersey Scum Swamp" [which might have foretold a certain reality show now entering its last season?] give some idea of the "crude humor" that informs much of the record.  "Shangkuan Ling-Feng" starts with a snippet of a martial-arts film before launching into a killer riff, some sax/vocal screaming, a brief organ interlude, and then that riff followed by more sax/vocal bellowing and Eye's guttural grunt to conclude.  Finally, there is the fitting album closer, "Gob of Spit," which is to be taken literally, courtesy of Eye's true-to-life vocalization.

As to some of the more hardcore elements of this record, having heard Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade six or so years before probably helped calibrate the ears somewhat for Torture Garden, although there is nothing that can really prepare anyone for the experience of hearing this record.  There are other Naked City albums that move into more darkly ambient (Absinthe), slowly grinding (Leng T'che) and schizophrenic (Radio and the first, eponymous album) territory, as well as a pretty impressive live album that skillfully recreates the abrupt stylistic and tempo changes on most of the records.

Torture Garden, though, has a strange, special place all its own.  For all of its musical mayhem, a listener would have to bring a particularly twisted (yet, healthy) sense of humor to the experience.  Otherwise, it might only take a minute, or thirty-eight seconds past that, or forty-five seconds further, to become completely disgusted and turned off by the spectacle.

And, this doesn't even deal with the cover art, consisting of one very colorful cartoonish artwork that is too graphic to even describe adequately in words, and a half-dozen or so photographs of intricate bondage scenes involving Japanese women.  The art work led Zorn's then-label, the respected Nonesuch, to balk at using the images, upon which Zorn left the label for the smaller Shimmy Disc. 

There's a recollection that Asian-American activists raised objections at the appearance of the cover (YHB had an early cassette version of the album), which led to its revamping.  Ironically, the album cover design, illustration, and photographs were done by Japanese and Japan has a particularly notable subculture of hyper-violent cartoon art and sexually-themed photography, such as bondage, that has been going on for years. 

It might be worth noting that this was not that long after the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit dustup in Cincinnati and Tipper Gore and the PMRC's "crusade" against filth and depravity in the music industry, so the shock value and absurdist humor of some forms of music, including the determinedly downtown version found in Torture Garden, don't translate well to lots and lots of people.  Even if the musicians on this record are all masterful and came up with a record that is fun, fascinating, rocking, trippy, bewildering, and, yeah, kooky.

Then again, that seems to describe much of John Zorn's oeuvre over a long and unpredictable career.  Which is why he's so cool.

Anton Bruckner: Symphony #7

Somehow, a few years back, YHB became a fan of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), a composer whose long, complex and dynamic symphonies are in a league with those of Wagner and Mahler, though the works of those two are far better known.

Yet, Bruckner is fascinating, because he reached back into the past to evoke the melodic phrasing of Beethoven, adapted the current work of his idol, Wagner, in harmonic sophistication, and pointed the way to the future with unusual modulation and unexpected dissonance.  This made the composer something of a traditionalist and a groundbreaker simultaneously.

Bruckner was born in a small town in northern Austria, where his father was a schoolteacher and his first music teacher.  He became known as an excellent organist and developed his skills further at a monastery at St. Florian nearby.  Later, he trained to be a teacher and worked as an assistant, though he had a terrible time in the field, thanks to the humiliation he suffered at the hands of his boss.  His sense of inferiority, perhaps inborn, was certainly enhanced during those years.   Indeed, his symphonies were marked by continual revisions, so that the term the "Bruckner problem" was coined to deal with the issue of the various editions of the composer's works.

The composer did find a better teaching position at St. Florian and, by the mid-1840s, was also beginning to compose music that showed his future direction in life, though he was a notoriously late bloomer.  He was appointed organist at St. Florian in his late twenties and continued teaching until his early thirties.  He did not write his first major work until he was forty and success and attention eluded him until he was well into his sixties.  Strangely, though he continued to be recognized as a virtuoso in organ performance, he never wrote any works for the instrument.

After become a music teacher at the Vienna Conservatory in 1868 and then at the University of Vienna seven years later.  A son of the country at heart, the unsophisticated, religiously devout, insecure and simple Bruckner struggled to find acceptance in the wordly capital of his country.  A thorough disciple of Wagner in an era in which advocates of the latter battled with supporters of Johannes Brahms regarding which "school" of music wsa superior, Bruckner found himself severely criticized for his choice.

Still, he pursued his singular composing vision, writing several symphonies that were published and performed, though he was unappreciated for about twenty years.  Only with the completion of his fourth symphony, the only that he named, calling it "Romantic," was he given some recognition of his unique talent.  At the very end of 1884, however, with the premiere of the seventh symphony, which was published the next year, he finally found acclaim and favor.

And, it is a spectacular achievement, filled with beautiful melodic themes and figures, ingenious harmonies, and a refined sense of the building, subsiding, rising again, and then release of tension that marked the composer's work.  Typically, there were some revisions in the years immediately following

Like the other monumentalists Wagner and Mahler, listening to a Bruckner symphony takes patience and time.  The seventh clocks in a 67 minutes (though paling in comparison to the nearly 90-minute eighth and a final unfinished ninth that was already 66 minutes through three movements, while the incomplete finale could perhaps have been a half hour in length) with the first two movements taking over two-thirds of the length. 

The 26-minute adagio, in particular, is a gorgeous example of Bruckner's sense of structure and dynamics, rising and falling in rhythmic and harmonic tension and featuring many episodes of beautiful melodies.  The more compact scherzo and finale feature more examples of dramatic bombast complemented by contemplative passages, including the sweeping and graceful melodies of the former and the monumental buildup of the finale. 

It is worth noting that the symphony was written during the last illness of Wagner, though it was dedicated to Bavaria's King Ludwig II, a patron of Wagner and whose reign soon ended with strange intrigue and even more bizarre death of the deposed sovereign.

Bruckner lived another decade or so after the seventh symphony and has remained a relatively unappreciated composer since.  Though the photo above is from a late 1990s disc issued by an Austrian label, the conductor Georg Tintner was a one-man revivalist of Bruckner's works through a series of recordings made for the Naxos label and other entries from the Bruckner symphonic catalog will come from that impressive series.

The Rough Guide to Afro-Peru

The Rough Guide series of albums highlighting world music has an exciting entry with this 2002 entry, subtitled "The Musical Spirit of Black Peru."  As is the case more often than recognized, the intersection of societies throughout the world brings interesting hybrids in music, so that the saying "music is the international language" might be somewhat modified to "music is an international language with many dialects."

On this sampler, there are eighteen tracks spanning just over an hour, providing a satisfying array of elements of music performed in the South American country which, as with so many "new world" states, has a profound debt owned to Africans who were forced to serve as slaves for Spanish overlords for centuries.  One of the better outcomes of this situation was the creation of a music that blended rhythms from West Africa with instrumentation and melodies from both the African and Spanish traditions.

YHB is not very familiar with the performers found on this album, though one name, that of Susana Baca, was vaguely recalled.  She, Eva Ayllón, Cecilia Barraza, Lucila Campos and the ensemble Peru Negro are each allotted two tracks, as is Oscar Aviles with varying partners.  The truth is that there isn't a marginal track on this excellent overview of a music that can only be very generally hinted at on the album.

There are breathy ballads, all-out party pieces, and some eclectic tracks, as well.  Baca's opener "Golpa E' Tierra" is a beautiful way to begin the record and the masterful sequencing is aptly demonstrated by the dance-heavy "Ruperta" by Peru Negro.  Other highlights for this listener include "Negro Carbon" from Manuel Donayre, Roberto Rivas' "Arroz con Concolon," featuring a donkey jaw shaker,  and Ayllón's "Cardo O Ceniza."  Again, though, everything is excellent on this top-notch sampler.

For Fanatics Only: Miles Davis, The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions

After the groundbreaking albums, In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, introduced yet another phase of trumpeter Miles Davis' remarkable career by launching fully into electronic instrumentation, the next album, 1971's A Tribute to Jack Johnson, which served as a soundtrack to a little-seen documentary about the great African-American boxer from the early 20th century, was poorly promoted by Columbia Records, which chose to devote resources to pushing another Davis record, the Live at the Fillmore East set, and did not sell as well as its predecessors.

Yet, Jack Johnson has attributes to it that make it a compelling continuation in Davis' development with improvisation through jazz, funk, electronic sound, and other elements.  And, as many reviewers have noted, though the ensemble playing in the aforementioned albums was excellent and Teo Macero's distinctive editing was remarkable, Davis' playing on Jack Johnson was probably better.  As importantly, the phenomenal guitarist John McLaughlin made some searing contributions that are notable sonic counterpoints (always a crucial dynamic in Miles' career) to the leader's trumpet.  The rest of the band, including Herbie Hancock on organ (no piano playing here), Michael Henderson on electric bass, drummer Billy Cobham, and young soprano sax player Steve Grossman, performs with great style and interconnectedness.

This is all the remarkable because the recording for the album began at an April 1970 session with the leader arriving late, so McLaughlin began to improvise some riffs and Henderson and Cobham quickly jumped in to provide rhythmic support.  Hancock, who had left Davis' band some time before, happened to be at the studio carrying a bag of groceries and was asked to sit at the Farfisa organ and start playing, though he resisted at first.  Finally Miles came in and, highly impressed by the jamming, quickly got his trumpet together and joined in.  After some major editing by Macero, including lifting material recorded in late 1969 and working on several takes in the main sesion, a 27-minute track called "Right Off" was assembled.

This was followed by another composite of different takes, skillfully edited by Macero with approval from Davis, called "Yesternow" and running only slightly shorter at 25 1/2 minutes.  Riffing off the bass line of James Brown's famed "Say It Loud—I'm Black and I'm Proud", as well as recycling a small section of In a Silent Way's "Shhh/It's Peaceful,"  nearly half of the length of the track was lifted from a piece called "Willie Nelson."  This excerpt, however, featured other musicians who were not credited on the album.  These included bass clarinet player Bennie Maupin, who was so notable on Bitches Brew, electric pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack deJohnette, and guitarist Sonny Sharrock.

Years later, the album was finally recognized by fans, critics and musicians for its excellent level of playing and innovative editing, as well as for the important Davis placed on recognizing Johnson as a man of black power long before the movement of that name.

When Columbia began its fantastic series of complete sessions box sets for Miles, its installment released in 2003 for the Jack Johnson period proved to be one that was revelatory because it mined the various takes that not only led to the creation of the heavily-edited albim, but cotemporaneous sessions that included much unreleased material and tracks that appeared on other records, such as the follow-up, Live-Evil, and 1974's Big Fun.

Still, it is five discs crammed with material and you'd have to be a serious Miles fan to even consider acquiring the box.  But, for those who do, there are remarkable moments throughout.  One is the pre-edited versions of "Go Ahead John," which, when it appeared on Big Fun, had been processed by Macero so that the guitar and drums were manipulated and then panned back and forth on both channels.  It likely seemed super-innovative at the time, but the original heard as recorded on this set  shows far more clearly that McLaughlin was truly unique in his playing and could deliver very powerful, heavy and blistering runs that just weren't heard before or since.  Even more killer are minutes of his performances on "Right Off" that were cut from the original album and the wailing and fuzz-box skronk elicited an admiring comment from Davis that there was "some nasty shit" that the guitarist laid down.

Another great discovery is the amazing playing of the largely-unknown Sonny Sharrock, who was likely invited because he seemed as close to Jimi Hendrix, whom Miles greatly admired and planned to work with before the rock god's death several months later, as could be found.  Actually, Sharrock was a masterful slide player and his work on "Willie Nelson" is a great example of that, though interested listeners can hear much more of that in Sharrock's later solo work and with the mind-pummeling Last Exit in the late 80s and early 90s.

Discs 3 and 4 has material that appeared in Live-Evil and features two versions of "Honky Tonk" and some short, haunting and beautiful pieces by Hermeto Pascoal, a Brazilian musician, such as "Little Church" and "Nem un Talvez" that proved to be good mood pieces to break up the intensity of other tracks.  The last disc has a two-part previously unreleased piece called "The Mask" before the album versions of "Right Off" and "Yesternow" appear.

Even though there are sometimes three, four, and even six versions of certain tracks, it is fascinating to hear the process of how Davis and Macero worked to take extended versions and different takes and then carefully edit them down to the final tracks that were released.  Any given listener could probably think of many portions that were left on the cutting room floor and which could have/should have been left in.

But, for true Miles fanatics, especially those who like his so-called "fusion" period, patience and careful listening can reveal so many amazing aspects of the recording process and elements of excellent music that, as with the unfortunate excising of Sharrock's contributions, was left behind.  The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions is a lot of music to take in, but even listening to a disc at a time over, say, a week span, is an exercise in hearing a great musician and a sympathetic producer create some of the most memorable music of the era.

Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings

Back in that critical year of 1990, when YHB was discovering jazz, classical, world and uncategorizable forms of music of all stripes, there was a stretch of delving deeply back to early recorded jazz.  This meant the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and some early blues, particularly Bessie Smith.

At that time, however, a new boxset was released by Columbia Records and its "Roots 'N Blues" series that provided the complete recordings of Robert Johnson.  Though not having heard any of his songs, YHB was familiar with the rudiments of the Johnson legend.

Namely, that Johnson, a native of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, a town now of about 4.500 people south of the state capital of Jackson, was a competed harmonica player and singer, but after living closer to Memphis in the far northwest corner of the state, he returned to his home area a spectacular guitarist.  It was said that he accomplished this through the proverbial "devil's bargain," selling his soul in exchange for his newfound musical talents.

Of course, it seems more likely that Johnson found other musicians from whom he could learn and it was said he emulated the style of the great Son House and took direct instruction from Ike Zimmerman, who was said to have acquired his abilities via supernatural agency playing in graveyards in the late hours.

In any case, Johnson toured throughout the Mississippi Delta regions in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana, but also performed in St. Louis, Chicago, New York and other farflung places.  In 1936, he was given the chance to cut his first recordings in a converted hotel room in San Antonio.  Over three days that November, Johnson recorded sixteen songs and alternate takes.  Of these, only two appearing on each side a 78-rpm record were released in his lifetime.  The A-side was "Terraplane Blues," backed with "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" and the release was through the Vocalion label.  This recording was a modest succes, tallying 5,000 sales in a regional market that served only blacks in the Jim Crow South.

In Dallas in June 1937, over two days, Johnson recorded another thirteen songs and some alternate takes.  In all, his recording career consisted of 41 surviving recordings of 29 pieces.  Four of these are included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 songs considered to be essential to the form.  Two, "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Cross Road Blues", were from the San Antonio sessions and the others, "Hell Hound on My Trail" and "Love in Vain Blues" came from Dallas.  These are certainly remarkable and representative pieces, though there are more in the collection to treasure.  This includes the very first piece Johnson record, "Kind Hearted Woman Blues," "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom," "Come on in My Kitchen," "I'm A Steady Rollin' Man," and "Traveling Riverside Blues."  Lyrically, there is plenty of the usual sexual double entendres, but also some surprisingly reflective observations and the darker, intenser variety, as well.

Johnson's guitar playing features all manner of impressive technical devices for the day, from bottleneck slides, to chunky rhythmic figures, and rapid, precise picking and it is small wonder that so many blues and rock guitarists to follow would cite him as a prime influence.  Even with the primitive recording techniques of small-label 1930s products, Johnson's fluidity, power, flexibility and inventivenes are truly remarkable. 

Sadly, Johnson may have been on the verge of a discovery by a much larger national audience when John Hammond, the famed talent scout for Columbia Records, was recruiting performers for his "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall in late 1938 and asked for Johnson to be located for the performance, only to learn that the bluesman had died the previous August.

The circumstances of Johnson's death are, like most of his life story, murky, but it has been claimed that he was poisoned by the jealous husband of one of the many women Johnson looked to seduce in his career.  In any case, Johnson died on 16 August after a bout of vomiting and pneumonia, though his death certificate did not list a cause of death.  This, of course, only added to the speculation.

It has been often said by and of musicians that you can learn more about them through their music than any other source.  In the case of Robert Johnson, there wouldn't be much choice anyway, given that so little of his life is known.  Then again, it is really impossible to know how much of his lyrics were personal and how much literary (if that term fits.)

What is certain is that few, if any, blues musicians have had the legacy and influence of Robert Johnson, even if the legend might be so pronounced that other masters of the style are comparatively overlooked.  For YHB, this dabbling in the blues (and attendance at one blues festival in the mid-90s) was short-lived and stopped with Johnson . . . until recently.  In recent months, recordings by Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Muddy Waters and Leadbelly have been given long-overdue attention and will be covered here down the road.

In the meantime, The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson still retain a powerful impact for this listener, over two decades since the compilation was issued.

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Bass Clarinet and Piano

The German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen was a controversial and colorful figure in the already colorful and controversial world of modern (so-called avant garde) classical music.  His work was easily among the most outré of the post-World War II era, embracing abstract electronic soundscapes as well as unusual compositions for clarinet, piano and small and large ensembles. 

One work called for the use of several helicopters hovering over the performance space with the harsh whirring of the craft's blades being integral to the piece.  He also created monumental works that would have been virtually impossible to stage almost anywhere, such as one for a festival held in Iran during the early 1970s.

Stockhausen was not only influential in the modern classical scene, but also had a profound impact on musicians in the electronic scene, broadly considered rock music.  These included German performers like Kraftwerk and Neu and their British counterparts like Brian Eno and Cabaret Voltaire.  While the composer could be outwardly critical of these and others who drew inspiration from him, the direct and tangential influences are obvious.

While any modern classical music can be maddening and offputting to a great many people, YHB is inspired and fascinated by the eager and enthusiastic embrace of experimentalism behind the work of Stockhausen.  Some of the music, however, is more accessible than others (the composer occasionally has issued recordings of his conducting the work of traditional composers, such as Bach) and an album issued in 2007, the year of the composer's death, by the German label Musikproduktion Darbinghaus und Grimm or MDG not only features some of Stockhausen's most interesting acoustic works, but they are performed by a duo of superlative German musicians, Steffen Schleiermacher on piano and bass clarinetist Volker Hemken, in a production setting that is clear, rich and dynamic.

All of the works on this disc are fantastic, but the 26-minute Tierkreis, which assigns melodies to each of the dozen signs of the zodiac, is the most striking because the two instrumentalists perform together, and the bass clarinet and piano are augmented by the playful timbres of the toy piano and the music box.  The original composition was for the latter and percussion, so the subsititution of the richer, more resonant former instruments provides a marked contrast.  Excepting the nearly 6-minute Libra, which still does not drag, the individual pieces are short, concise and expertly performed.

Hemken's performance on In Freundschaft is also a marvel with Stockhausen's quite varied score allowing for a full exposition of the sounds that the bass clarinet can produce, in terms of high and low registers and in loud and soft volume, giving the illusion of more than one player.  Notably, the composer is quoted in the jacket as observing that his sense of formula in writing the work deals both with mathematics and magic and, while a trained listener (not this one, however) can understand the former as basically objective, the question of the latter is, seemingly, totally subjective, which may be the point.  Regardless of the structural question, In Freundschaft, written literally as a birthday present for Suzanne Stephens, whose clarinet work with Stockhausen's pieces was the inspiration.

Schleiermacher likewise shines on the three piano pieces taken from the Klavierstück series, composed in the 1950s and very early 1960s, and which are among the most commonly performed piano works by Stockhausen.  With the excellent recording conditions, the striking of a single powerful chord resonates with the listener and this is juxtaposed with fragments of pretty almost-Romantic playing that tend to end abruptly and drift off into the concert hall in which the performance was recorded.

The Tanza Luzefa! which is drawn from one of several operas that constitute the massive Licht cycle is a strange and intriguing mix of bass clarinet playing with purrs, smacking and other non-traditional expressions with sounds that include laughter, clicking, stamping and other elements that bring a different approach to rhythm.  The programming of this piece amidst the Klavierstück is quite interesting.

The use of the word "accessible" for this selection of works is only meaningful, perhaps, when compared to some of the more esoteric of Stockhausen's works like Mantra, Kontakte, the Spiral pieces, and the Helicopter Quartet, in which electronics and environmental distortions, like literally having helicopters flying during the performance.  But, there is a warmth and immediacy, even in their more abstract moments, that, coupled with the sensitivity and empathy that the players bring, make this album a favorite of the several Stockhausen recordings in YHB's collection.

Talip Ozkan: The Dark Fire

Here is another phenomenal album issued by Bill Laswell's Axiom label back in the early 1990s: Talip Ozkan's The Dark Fire.  The Turkish saz player performs muscular and impassioned traditional songs and vocals.  The saz or baglama, as commonly known in Turkey, is a lute-like instrument with a wide, deep body, but with a neck far longer than the lute, and is played either with a plectrum or in a fingerpicking style.

Ozkan (1939-2010) was from the Acipayam region of southwest Turkey and came to attention in the late 1950s and 1960s performing on radio programs in the capital Ankara and he was the Director of Folkloric music and dance programming for the national radio station system.  In 1977, he moved to Paris, pursuing doctorate work in ethnomusicology and teaching at conservatories and universities there.  After a career teaching at a conservatory in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Ozkan retired.

It was in Paris that The Dark Fire was made, with production handled by Laswell and his long-time musical associate Nicky Skopelitis, a very fine guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, and engineered by Oz Fritz, who work is typically clear and crystalline, making Ozkan's saz work ring and resound brilliantly, while excellently capturing his emotive baritone vocal style.  He was accompanied on some tracks by saz player and percussionist Mahmut Demir, whose work gives a further richness abd breadth to the already intense sounds.  Ozkan was under-recorded, so this album has preserved the little-documented work of a true master of traditional Turkish music.

The tracks reflect the long history and traditions of Turkish music.  The opener deals with a famed troubadour and soldier named Koroglu, who predated Islam's arrival some 1300 years ago.  The second piece, Karsilama, is a Thracian dance song with percussion providing a lively beat.  A love song, Girdin Yarnin, comes from the Azeri people, whose homeland was today's republic of Azerbaidjan, adjacent to Turkey.  Suda Balik Oynuyor has a melody going back nearly 900 years in the Anatolia region of the central part of the country.  Another tribute to a troubadour is Komur Gozlum and this song is emblematic of the more sensual of traditional Turkish song.  A nod to the tradition of the whirling dervishes, whose music was recently covered in this blog, comes with Yuce Daq Basin Da Bir Koyun Meler, but in the Alevi tradition (rather than the Mehlevis highlighted in the earlier post), women take part with men.  A dance tune without a name, so it was called Sipsi after the style of dance embodied in it, comes from Ozkan's home town.  One of the more interesting tunes if Gah Cikarin Gokyuzune, which herald the Alevi troubadour Kul Nesimi, who resisted denying his religious beliefs and was skinned alive some 600 years ago.  Another dance piece, the Abdal, named for the Anatolian people who developed the style is the longest track at over 9 minutes and is a favorite of YHB.  The closing song is Feridem, named after a woman named Farida from an ancient region of Anatolia.

As in so many other cases, Laswell deserves a great deal of credit for bringing great music from other societies around the world to a (potential) audience through a major label, Axiom being distributed for several years through Chris Blackwell's Island Records.  And, the late Talip Ozkan's rendering of traditional Turkish music through his excellent saz playing and his earnest vocals are worth seeking out.