Kronos Quartet: Caravan

Just about the time that I got into the amazing Kronos Quartet in 1990, the group was beginning to branch out into collborations with composers and performers from around the world and expanding their horizons beyond the so-called Classical world.  Similarly, at that period, I was moving beyond a concentration on alternative rock to listening to more jazz, classical and world music.  So, the circumstances worked well for my hearing where Kronos was going as I was heading that general direction, too!

The first of these endeavors was 1991's Pieces of Africa and subsequent recordings like 1994's Night Prayers. 2002's Nuevo and 2009's Floodplain continued to show their furthered interest and deep engagement with music from around the world.  In fact, these four albums and today's highlighted disc, Caravan, released in 2000, were packaged by Nonesuch Records under the title of Kronos Explorer Series, a nod to the label's Nonesuch Explorer catalog of amazing world music recordings.

Caravan is an excellent musical travelogue across the planet, with commissions from composers from the former Yugoslavia, Portugal, India, Lebanon, Iran, Mexico and elsewhere with a very diverse program of pieces.  They also demonstrate a tremendous range of approaches to how a string quartet works in environments outside "serious music."

This includes working with those who write or play music that isn't Western classical music, such as the fantastic Ali Jihad Racy, who demonstrated his expertise on the ney on his phenomenal "Ecstasy," the Bollywood piece "Aaj Ki Raat," which benefits tremendously from the unparalleled tabla player Zakir Hussain, the fascinating Misirou Twist from Nicholas Roubanis but which was best known from a version from surf guitar legend Dick Dale (who is Lebanese from his father and Polish and Belorussian through his mother) and which has drums by Martyn Jones, and the really cool,Turceasca, with Gypsy musicians.

Caravan is one of those great examples of how fusing Western music, in this case string quartet, with other musics from around the world can do justice to both and provide an exciting hybrid that plays on the strengths of each.

Madjid Khaladj: Iran, The Art of the Tombak

The tombak, also known as the zarb, is the centerpiece of Iranian classical music percussion and the drum, made of mulberry wood or walnut and covered with goat skin, is often to the music what the tabla is for Indian classical music.

One of the more amazing elements of playing the instrument is the variety of sounds and ways of playing involved, as the use of all the fingers and palms at the edges and centers of the drum head provides an astonishing range of dynamics.

This recording from the venerable French label Musique du Monde presents the talents of Madjid Khaladj, who moved to Paris to work as a teacher and performer in Iranian classical percussion.  The album presents a range of pieces demonstrating his mastery of the tombak.  Much of the brilliance of the musical form and the particular use of percussion is the improvisational techniques utilized (again, much as with Indian music).

The pieces on the album are from a variety of rhythms, including 6/8, 7/16, 12/8 and 12/16 types, as well as those based on the number of beats, ranging from 2,4, 5 or 6, with these performances usually accompanying such traditional Iranian pieces as sung poems, music for classical dances and others.

Madjid Khaladj began studying the tombak at age 7 and learned another traditional instruments, as well.  In his early twenties, during the mid-1980s, he went to Paris to teach and remains in that city, though he also instructs in Switzerland and remains a very active performer and teacher, having worked with Lisa Gerrard (formerly of Dead Can Dance) and Ry Cooder.

Again, this album might not be of great interest to those who aren't into percussion, because of its total focus on the tombak, but for those who are, it can be a fascinating excursion into an art of longstanding in a part of the world that often has negative associations because of religion and politics.

The Durutti Column: Without Mercy Box Set

When I first got into The Durutti Column, the amazing and little-known project built around the mercurial and remarkable guitarist Vini Reilly, in 1986 because they were one of the two opening acts (along with The Fall) for the mega-popular New Order, one of my favorite albums was Without Mercy, released in 1984.

Reilly was pushed to make the album by Factory label impresario Anthony Wilson, who was a dedicated supporter of his first signee to the famed label, but who wanted him to take a different direction from the first three (and all excellent) albums, The Return of the Durutti Column, LC and Another Setting.  Wilson was especially interested in something more classical and expansive and suggested a work based on a poem of John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, and Reilly, while not happy with the idea, dug in and came up with a recording of two side-long suites.  The album's packaging, the first ever done by the great 8vo design firm, befitted the music with delicate and undulating lettering and a reproduction of a painting by Henri Matisse.

Playing much of the work on his first instrument, piano, as well as guitar, Reilly came up with a simple, but beautiful theme, and then built something around twelve stanzas of the poem for the first side and a "Without Mercy 2" for the second side, that incorporate drum machines, electronics, a greater emphasis on his gorgeous guitar and, interestingly, funk-based beats and horns to really turn things inside out.  Reilly's accompanists, including long-time percussionist and manager, Bruce Mitchell; violinist and violist Blaine Reininger; trumpeter Tim Kellet; and viola player John Metcalfe (the latter toured with Reilly for quite some time, including when I saw DC in 1986); and others do a tremendous job.

Last year, Factory Benelux issued a 4-disc Without Mercy box that put the original album with other recorded material from the time, both studio and live.  Having not heard this music for close to thirty years, I was happy to find that the intense admiration for the music was still there. So, in addition to the original album,  the Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say EP from 1985 and including the haunting "The Room" and "A Little Mercy" and four live tracks of the "Mercy Theme," "A Little Mercy" and related pieces make up Disc 2.  Then, the third and fourth discs are complete live performances from London (1984) and Oslo (1986) that include "The Mercy Theme," "A Little Mercy," and "Mercy Dance," the latter bringing in those funk-infused elements, along with other LC standards like "Tomorrow," "Blind Elevator Girl," "The Missing Boy," "Pauline" and others.

With the original album holding up beautifully after 35 years and all the fantastic extras with the additional three discs, this set has been listened to a lot and demonstrates some of Reilly's most interesting work as The Durutti Column, even if he has been less than enthusiastic about the results, calling it "a learning process" and shrugging it off saying "it doesn't really work."  In the liners for the box, though he allowed that having "very, very excellent musicians" meant that, "in retrospect it ended up being a very good move to do Without Mercy."

Bud Powell: The Complete Blue Note and Roost Recordings

His is a name I'd frequently come across when it came to reading about the most influential musicians in the so-called "Bop" era of jazz, from the mid-Forties into the mid-Fifties, give or take, but Bud Powell is not nearly as well known as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and others who came out of the remarkable period and its revolutionary sounds.

So, when it was time to find some of his music, it seemed like a pretty obvious choice was the four-disc Complete Blue Note and Roost Recordings issued on Blue Note in 1994.  The material here ranges from 1947 to 1963, though, because of severe mental issues, evidently at least partially due to a beating on the head from New York police officers in 1945, Powell's recording output was relatively limited and unevenness of execution and a lack of inspiration are often cited as problematic with the troubled pianist's recorded output.

Still, the set includes some remarkable performances, including the pianist's often stunning playing, the work of some of the finest musicians of the time, and generous samplings of Powell's compositional prowess.  This is especially true of the first two discs, where his lightning fast runs and powerful left hand comping were most consistent and thrilling and where his best original pieces shine through, including "Bouncing With Bud;" "Un Poco Loco;" and the remarkable "Glass Enclosure."  There are plenty of great moments on discs three and four, though, such as "Frantic Fancies;" "Bud on Bach;" and "Cleopatra's Dream."

Powell also had many great supporting musicians on these recordings, including Max Roach, Fats Navarro, Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, Curly Russell, Art Taylor, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones and Sam Jones, with most sessions being with trios.  He may not be considered as crucial a bebop figure as Parker, Mink and Gillespie, but this set provides plenty of evidence why Bud Powell was a giant as a pianist and composer.

Ludwig von Beethoven: Early Years Through The Eroica

Sometimes it's necessary to tune out from a world that can be a little too much with its turmoils and traumas.  It seemed that way for a bit last week with the government shutdown, the battles between political figures, and, even though we needed it and I usually don't mind it in relatively small doses, a few gray rainy days.

So, listening to the six-disc Early Years Through the Eroica box set issued as part the Smithsonian Collection of Recordings in 1988 (when the Iran-Contra scandal was going on and now seems remote and quaint in comparison to the shenanigans now), was a real pleasure and a way to briefly escape today's scrapes.

Most interestingly, the recordings were made using original instruments. The three discs comprising the first six of Beethoven's seventeen string quartets are beautifully rendered by The Smithson String Quartet, with the two violins, viola and violoncello played on instruments ranging in construction from 1665 to 1748   Two sonatas for violoncello and fortepiano are rendered on a 1708 version of the former and an 1800 edition of the latter.  The Smithson Chamber Orchestra uses instruments for the first three of the master's symphonies, including the famed Third (the Eroica), that go back as far as the 17th century with some modern but based on historic instruments.

The instrument in which the differences between the older and newer versions most are noticeable is the fortepiano.  It has five octaves, rather than seven and one half, lighter, narrower keys and thinner hammers, and weighs under 200 pounds compared to nearly 1,000 for a modern grand.  So, the sound is lighter and thinner.  Some argue that's why advances were made with later pianos to improve the dynamics and range and are reason not to go back.  But, as with recordings made on harpsichords, what's interestng about hearing this set is you do get a fascinating glimpse into what audiences would have heard when these pieces were first performed.

Anthology of World Music: The Music of Laos

This is another stellar Rounder Records release, from 1999, of the fantastic series of fifty world music recordings overseen by Alain Danielou and produced by the International Institute for Traditional Music between 1968 and 1987.

The recordings are from Radio Vientiane, the Vientiane School of Music, the Palace Orchestra at Luang Prabhang and a village recording.  The mouth organ, percussive instruments of various types (gongs, kettledrums, and others), and vocals evoke the rich history of music in the land-locked nation between Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and China.

Danielou's notes give a good general background of musical traditions in the nation and explains the connection of indgenous developments with influences from China and India.  The variation in large ensemble pieces (including an excellent one drawing on the Hindu masterpiece, the Ramayana) and solo and smaller group works is notable, as well.

Rounder deserves much praise for reissuing the Danielou records on disc and having about a dozen or so of these from various parts of the world, I'm looking forward to getting as close to completing the set as possible.

Richard H. Kirk: Dasein

Released at the end of June 2017 through his Intone Productions label, Dasein is a great Richard H. Kirk album in many ways.  Recorded at intervals over a three-year period from late 2012 to late 2015, while Kirk worked on other projects, it reintroduces voice (albeit heavily treated samples of his vocalizing) and, especially, guitar, which has not been heard on any of his recordings for a long time.  These add a level of depth and richness to the music and are welcome reintroductions to his work..

The pieces are uniformly excellent, filled with the dub-influenced electronic melange that Kirk has mastered over many decades.  The titles hint at some of his usual concerns, including "Nuclear Cloud," "Radioactive Water," "Invasion Pretext," and "Sub/Antarctic/H2O," the latter appearing to have some reference to climate change (maybe).

This is a strong release from someone whose electronic music has been challenging and invigorating this listener for over thirty years and is an indication that the creative spirit is far from diminishing in Kirk's monumental body of work. 

As a sidenote, just having finished the often-difficult reading of an anthology of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, a core concern of his was the nature of dasein, or being.  So, it seemed quite a coincidence that I bought the CD last year and then followed up, unintentionally, with the purchase of the Heidegger anthology.

Winged Serpents: Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor

I was on vacation on the central California coast, blissfully tuned out from the news that, these last couple of years, have been invariably draining and maddening.  So, it was surprising and saddening to find out a while after returning that the peerless Cecil Taylor, one of my favorite musicians of all, died on 5 April, not long after his 89th birthday.

There are dozens of Taylor recordings that could be highlighted here, but the striking tribute album (and these are not always what they're intended to be) quickly assembled, produced, and released by the unfathomably productive John Zorn for his Tzadik label is an outstanding one.  As the OBI strip notes, "Cecil Taylor was a powerful and unforgettable musical force—a fearless visionary and one of the greatest musicians of the past century.  His visceral and intense performances influenced generations of musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, and creative minds of every description."

The pieces here are definitely influenced by, but not imitative of, this astounding pianist, whose music will always be a regular part of the playlist.  They reflect respect for Taylor while expressing the "heartfelt tributes" Zorn intended for the musicians to develop.  Craig Taborn, Sylvie Courvoisier, Brian Marsella, Kris Davis, Aruán Ortiz and Anthony Coleman all bring remarkable works, beautifully played and recorded with crystalline fidelity, that are really a pleasure to listen to.

A poem, also in a Taylor influenced style, by Charles Bernstein and Zorn's impressionistic album art in ink, gold and, yes, blood are also tributes.  The poem and a portion of the artwork are shown here as indications of how carefully and creatively Zorn and the others expressed their debt to the magic produced by a musician (magus?) rightly described as "this legendary genius who created a new music that transcended all genius."

Elliott Carter: 16 Compositions (2002-2009)

I finished recently a book on the music of the astounding Elliott Carter, whose work continues to amaze because of its complexity, richness, and wide range of expression.  The book was often a tough slog when it came to intricate and rigorous technical explanations of the construction of pieces and the often intimidating terminologies employed in musicology.  Still, what did come through for a total amateur was Carter's innovations in harmony, time and other structural elements, and most especially in his use of rhythm.

The book definitely made listening to Carter's work more worthwhile in trying to pick out where the composer employed his creativity and innovation.  An example of this is with 16 Compositions (2002-2009), another excellent issue in a series by Bridge Records, which produces great recordings by modern composers.  The 2010 double-disc surveys a wide range of symphonic, ensemble, solo and choral works in a period in which the composer was in his mid-90s to early 100s.

That's one of the many remarkable aspects about Carter in that he was very active making amazing music at a very advanced stage in life and doing so with all the exploratory creativity he displayed throughout his career.  In fact, he finished his last piece just three months before he died in late 2012, a few weeks shy of his 104th birthday.  So, this survey has a lot to enjoy, often in brief pieces, and featuring typically unusual instrumentation, like solo works for marimba and bassoon, along with more standard large and small group and solo types.

Reboot with G.S. Sachdev: Live in Concert

This stunning live performance by the amazing bansuri player, G.S. Sachdev, is particularly noteworthy, given that Sachdev died this past June in San Rafael, north of San Francisco.  Issued by Lyrichord, a producer of many fine "world music" recordings, the album is 78 minutes of five performances, ranging from seven to thirty-one minutes of the master, accompanied by Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla and Elb Sounders on tambura (which provides a steady drone), displaying his remarkable talent.  Unfortunately, it is not stated when and where the album was recorded.

As Sachdev wrote in the liner notes, ragas are traditionally performed at a set time of day to evoke the feelings and atmosphere of that part of the day, though he also noted "when we close our eyes, we lose our sense of time," so that an early morning raga can be performed in the late evening.

This is a more introspective and quieter concert of ragas than would be associated with, say, Ali Akbar Khan on the sarod and Ravi Shankar with his sitar, where the slow buildup to an extraordinarily fast and powerful finish was standard.  Sachdev's music is, as the notes indicate, created "to develop the raga in a calm and methodical way" and he observed that "the artist needs a sympathetic approach from the listeners" because "music starts with the artist but is completed by the audience" and "there is no separation between the two."  Listening to this great album with these thoughts in mind helps make the experience even more meaningful and entertaining.

Reboot with Pete Namlook/Bill Laswell's Outland

This 1994 collaboration between the late German electronic musician Pete Namlook (Peter Kuhlmann) and the prolific bassist and producer Bill Laswell is a trip deep into ambient sound and the first of five editions in the Outland series with the pair also producing five albums under the Psychonavigation moniker.  They also worked with Klaus Schulze on a few editions of the Dark Side of the Moog series--all for Namlook's amazing FAX Records series.

It begins with an eerie sound source of Mongolian tuva singers and instrumentation and then dissolves into a low, quiet drone.  Excepting some variation in rhythm and tones and a bit of manipulation of Laswell's bass, the 62-minute piece is an exercise in deep, dark ambience.

Outland reminds me a lot of the work of another Laswell collaborator, Mick Harris, and his Lull project, which is actually darker than this.  I'm a big fan of the Lull series of recordings, so this album is also a favorite.  I've found it to be a good recording to have on while working at the computer or in the yard (even better with headphones) or on a longer commute in the car.

Reboot with Herbie Nichols: Four Classic Albums

The reboot continues with this double-disc British compilation of four albums recorded from 1955 to 1957 from the tragically underrecorded and underappreciated pianist Herbie Nichols.  I'd only heard of him because I'd read A.B. Spellman's Black Music: Four Lives and learned a little about this amazing musician and composer who died in 1963 at age 44.

This recording captures the creativity of his writing and the stunning technique and unusual structure of his piano playing.  Critic Leonard Feather wrote in the liners to the combined volumes of The Prophetic Herbie Nichols that "his technique made [Vladimir] Horowitz and [Art] Tatum seem like bumbing amateurs," which is leaning way too far in trying to get Nichols his due.  But, Nichols was a fantastic stylist and it is clear that the trio was the way to make the most of it.

There are stellar sidemen here, including Art Blakey, Max Roach, George Duvivier, Al McKibbon and Danny Richmond and the far-sighted Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records deserves accolades aplenty for recording Nichols when no one else cared.  Unfortunately, he died young and all but ignored, but these recordings are a testament to the phenomenal talent of Herbie Nichols.

Reboot with Franz Liszt: A Faust Symphony

Time for a reboot, which means even less commentary but at least some favorites still get posted for those who might be interested.

Today, we retool this blog with Franz Liszt's A Faust Symphony.  I've read that Liszt's skills as a composer are not as highly regarded as his contemporaries, though he was a dynamic and dramatic virtuoso pianist who set hearts (especially female ones) swooning on his many tours of Europe in his younger years.

Yet, his "symphonic poems," when the mood is there, can be fascinating excursions into literature, history, characterization and dramatic symphonic expression.  The notes to this Naxos release include a negative critique from Edouard Hanslick, a prominent music critic, who complained about Liszt's "fiddling and blowing" in an attempt to make his work sound profound.

Having read Göethe's Faust a quarter century ago, but remembering the feelings evoked by that romantic work, the drama of bombast alternating with meditative passages in A Faust Symphony is a powerful musical representation of the tragic Faust and his selling of his soul to Mephistopheles (a.k.a., the Devil.)  The Orchestra of the Ferenc (Franz in Hungarian) Liszt Academy, conducted by András Ligeti, and the Hungarian State Choir perform beautifully.

When in the mood, Liszt's symphonic poems can be very enjoyable and this is an example.

Trinidad: The Sound of the Sun (The Westland Steel Band)

It's summer and this enticing recording from the stellar Nonesuch Explorer series seems particularly appropriate to discuss at this balmy time of the year.  Recorded by Bill Leader and released initially in 1967, "The Sound of the Sun" presents a dozen pieces from The Westland Steel Band, with the traditional four types of drums (guitar/alto; cello/tenor; boom/bass; and ping pong/soprano) providing the range of tonal sounds that epitomize its form of calypso music.

The liner notes by Jane Sarnoff start off with a poetic appreciation of the beauty and vibrancy of Trinidad, which forms with the smaller Tobago, and independent nation just off the coast of Venezuela.  Usually the only time we hear about the tiny island nation is during the summer Olympics, especially the impressive showing by sprinters at the London games in 2012 or the impressive career of Ato Boldon in the 1996 and 2000 games.

The music presented here comes from a tradition dating back to the late 18th century when French planters introduced Carnival and, following the abolition of slavery in the late 1830s, black and mixed-race residents took up the celebration in their own way.  When traditional conga drums were outlawed because of fears of overexcitement stirring up celenbrants, bamboo sticks (bamboo tamboo) were used and that, too, was banner in the 1930s.

Undaunted, people turned to hitting bottles partly filled with spoons and then observed that metal worked better, including car axles, tin cans, pots, containers and drums, especially the oil containers commonly found on the island.  Experimentation gradually led to the formation of steel drum bands, whose musicians became experts in tone, pitch, harmony and melody.  As Sarnoff observes, the instruments are more gongs that drums and one player plays the melody on the 32-note ping pong while the others accompany with theme variations, though the melody moves among instruments as the procession moves through the streets.

As Sarnoff concludes, "the sound is liquid—the sound of the sun on the sea, the sea against sand, feet marching through strets that hold sparkling heat and the hearts of an entire island."  While for some the music might sound repetitive on the surface, a deeper listen reveals a great deal of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic variety, making "The Sound of the Sun" highly enjoyable and fun.

Elizabeth Cotten: Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes

The name Elizabeth Cotten first came to this blogger's attention on the 1987 Firehose album If'n and its fine ballad "In Memory of Elizabeth Cotten," written and performed by the band's guitarist and singer Ed Crawford.

Years later, a couple of her albums were acquired and this Smithsonian Folkways release is the first part of an amazing story.  Cotten, who was born in 1895 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, learned to play guitar upside down in her distinctive finger-picking style as a young girl, married, raised a family, divorced and was working in a department store in Washington, D.C. when she returned a lost child to her family.

It turned out the child was Peggy Seeger of the well-known musical family, including her older half-brother Pete, the famed folk singer, and her brother Mike, compiler of this recording.  Hired to work for the Seeger family, Cotten saw a guitar on the wall of the home, stated that she used to play and "started playing again, recalling one by one many of the songs and tunes of her childhood and youth."

That led to her being recorded by Mike Seeger in 1957 and 1958 with the result being this album with the very long title, but a great many attractions.  The main one is that Cotten was remarkably dexterous and played the guitar and banjo with great senstitvity and skill.  Another is that her fragile voice rings with authenciity and the weight of experience for someone in her early sixties who'd raised a family and worked for decades.  Finally, the material is beautiful, constituting the marriage of folk and blues that made so much of the folk revival of the time so interesting.

Cotten's "Freight Train," which she wrote in her pre-teen years, became well-known, but there are other excellent songs, like "Oh, Babe, It Ain't No Lie," "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad," and a trio of medleys.  It's stated that she recorded many of the pieces on this phenomenal record at her home, while her grandchildren silently watched and listened.  This makes this one of the more interesting "live albums" you could imagine from a musician of immense talent and charm!

Sam Rivers: Fuchsia Swing Song

For this listener, Sam Rivers' many great albums from the early 1970s onward represent the best of his most daring, diverse and interesting compositions, but there is no denying the superb qualities of his debut, 1964's Fuchsia Swing Song.

It's amazing that Rivers was 41 before he cut this album at the end of that year, but at least he lived long enough to generate some really remarkable recordings.  He'd toured with Miles Davis in Japan during the summer, with young drummer Tony Williams encouraging Davis to hire Rivers, though it did not, apparently, go well with the mercurial trumpeter and leader.  The resulting album, Miles in Tokyo, is intriguing because of how different Rivers sounded compared to George Coleman, whom he replaced, and Wayne Shorter, who replaced him.

That difference is mostly in Rivers' grainy sound, his powerful sense of dynamics, crackling runs, stunning fluidity and unusual approach to melody and rhythm.  When it came to making his first recording, Rivers brought in the Davis rhythm section of Williams (who'd first played professionally at 13 with Rivers in Boston) and the great Ron Carter on bass.  Rounding out the lineup is the fine pianist Jaki Byard, who'd been in a band with Rivers years before and also was an important contributor to the bands of Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy.  It is notable that Rivers rarely recorded with a pianist, but Byard's history with the leader and his sympathetic playing makes it work well.

Fuchsia Swing Song definitely has the bop touch to it, with a strong dose of blues, especially in Byard's comping and light touch while soloing ("Luminous Monolith" even features a brief snippet that sounds like barrelhouse-style playing). Williams makes tremendous use of his amazing cymbal along with fantastic polyrhythmic work, while Carter is typically stellar in his highly supportive playing.  Given his first opportunity to showcase his playing, Rivers takes full advantage and makes full use of his abilities.  "Beatrice," named for the leader's wife, is a rare and pretty ballad, showing Rivers' ability to yield warm and still challenging solos.

Rivers went on to record a few more sides for Blue Note, which embraced the so-called "avant garde" in the mid-Sixties, signing Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and others, but the label was sold and most of these musicians stopped recording for Blue Note by 1968.  He had a fruitful and notably freer period with Impulse in the first part of the Seventies and then recorded for many smaller labels over the years, including his own Rivbea Sound. 

Rivers died at the end of 2011 at age 88, still nowhere near as recognized as he should have been because he was one of the greatest and most distinctive composers and players in jazz for some 45 years.  Fuchsia Swing Song is where it all started and is a great introduction to the work of this unsung master.

George Crumb: Ghosts from Alhambra/Voices from a Forgotten World

George Crumb's remarkable music includes frequent references to Spain, including his fascination with the poems of the tragic Federico Garcia Lorca, and "Ghosts of Alhambra" is a seven-part suite composed in 2009 of remarkable interest based on Lorca's 1921 "Poem of the Deep Song" written for traditional flamenco performances held at the historic Alhambra.  This chamber work features a male baritone, a guitarist and a percussionist and the voice lends a sombre and forbidding aspect to the mysterious voicings of the guitar and an often rumbling of the percussion.

The "American Songbook" series by Crumb is not about standard pop fare, but an unusual look at a variety of pieces that reflect what the composer identifies as from all directions of the compass on the continent and incorporating native Indian themes, reimaginings of popular music pieces and other music reflecting the diversity of the United States.  The 2006 "Voices from a Forgotten World" turned out to be an added chapter to what was slated to be a four-part series and continued on to other parts.

There are ten pieces in this set, ranging from 1 1/2 to over 9 minutes and reflecting a great diversity of types of material.  There are two voices, a baritone and a mezzo-soprano with the instrumentation consisting of amplified piano and four percussionists employing a wide range of types.  Crumb subtitled these "A Cycle of American Songs from North and South, East and West" and there are pieces referencing native peoples, New England, Appalachia and the South, but they also reflect time periods from the 17th century to the first half of the 20th and themes varying from native concerns to labor to takes on Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer."

The songs in "Voices from a Forgotten World" also reflect myth, humor, pathos and other emotional ranges and, as is often Crumb's way, there is a great deal of foreboding and mystery to much of the cycle, while "Somebody Got Lost in a Storm" is jarring, intense and powerful with the percussion and piano reflecting the element of the storm in a dramatic fashion.

This album is the fifteenth in a series of the complete works of Crumb and Starobin's involvement is notable because, in 1981, he established the Bridge label which issued the recording.  He deserves kudos for his dedication to this great composer and issuing beautifully performed and recorded albums like this.

Sacred Rhythms of Cuban Santeria

This fascinating Smithsonian Folkways release from 1995 comprises recordings made in Cuba in 1983 and 1984 of four orus, or series of songs and rhythms designed to communicate with saints within the santería religion.  The sessions were made in temple-homes but were arranged separately from ceremonies to provide the best quality of sound.

Santería came to Cuba from the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria taken by slave traders to the Caribbean island colony of Spain where they were known as lukumís or eyó, among other names.  It appears as if the development of the religion and the sacred music associated with it represented the reconstruction by dislocated peoples of their ancient African traditions.

In the mid-1880s slavery was abolished in Cuba and former slaves headed in large numbers to cities like Havana, while other remained in the country farms or hamlets.  The concept of the cabildo, a sort of mutual aid group, brought in images of Roman Catholic saints used as "masks" for the African deities (orishas) worshipped by the former slaves and their descendants.  The name santería directly refers to these Catholic saints.  The temple-homes, overseen by a god-father or a god-mother, became the central place for worship and the production of music associated with santería.

This music is based on percussion and vocals, with a variety of instruments in the former, including the batá, a trio of hourglas-shaped drums in the African tradition with different pitches, the abwes or chequerés, which are gourds filled with netting and seeds are which are shaken so the seeds hit the outside of the gourd.  Metal instruments are also used, though the Cuban version is usually a hoe blade hit by a piece of iron.  For non-religious performance, the bembé, a cylindrical drum that can be in many different sizes, are common. 

Vocalising is usually with a soloist joined by a chorus in a call-and-response style with participants invited to join in with the chorus answering the soloist. Themes of lyrics concern Yoruba gods, events and other aspects of the inherited African tradition mixed with Roman Catholic concepts from the Spaniards in Cuba.  There are also secular lyrics about current events or people at the ceremonies with a satirical and critical bent.

This is a remarkable recording for historical as well as musical reasons and Smithsonian Folkways deserves great credit for capturing these performances and making them available.  The liner notes are particularly useful for understanding the basics of the music.

Culture: Two Sevens Clash (30th Anniversary Edition)

This classic album by Culture, the only the trio recorded with the legendary Joe Gibbs, was recorded in 1977 at an opportune time.  Reggae was an international phenomenon thanks to the rise of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear and others.  Joseph Hill, whose unmistakable keening and off-kilter vocal style and strong songwriting skills were at the center of Culture's success, worked his way through some early reggae groups and as a percussionist and harmony singer in the house band for well-known producer Coxsone Dodd at the famed Studio One.

His cousin Albert Walker invited Hill to join him and Kenneth Dayes in the African Disciples, soon renamed Culture, and the group was one of several outstanding ones that featured a lead singer and two harmony singers (Mighty Diamonds, Meditations, Abyssinians, etc.) in reggae at the time.  It was Burning Spear, however, which evidently was the most influential to the development of Culture's sound.

Hill was devoted, as Burning Spear was, to the teachings and precepts of Marcus Garvey and his concepts of black liberation, as well as to Rastafarianism, and his lyrics are filled with references to Black Star liners, African roots, the native Arawaks of Jamaica and many other themes.  He melded his ample lyrical talent with a great melodic sense and that unique impassioned vocalizing to develop an unmistakble sound.  Walker and Dayes harmonized perfectly with Hill.

As for the musicians, there's the great Sly Dunbar on drums and, though his usual bass-playing partner Robbie Shakespeare plays some guitar on the album, the bass duties are handled by Lloyd Parks.  Stalwart studio musicians like "Bubber" Waul on keyboards, Sticky on percussion, Vin Gordon on trombone, trumpeter Bobby Ellis and tenor player Tommy McCook keep things tight and moving smoothly.

There isn't a weak song on this amazing record.  While the title track drew a lot of attention because of its allusions to the "two sevens" in the year 1977, amplified by the pair of that superstitious number in the month and date of 7 July, and which led many in Jamaica to stay home from work and school that day and await over concerns of what the day might bring, every song is solid.  "Calling Rastafari," ""Black Starliner Must Come", "Get Ready to Ride the Lion to Zion," and "See Them a Come" are highlights for this listener, but this is a rare example where every track is great.

This 30th Anniversary edition, issued by Shanachie Records just a year after Hill's death after he collapsed during a concert in Berlin, contains some great photos, an essay by Lenny Kaye and comments and praise from Dunbar, Gibbs, Burning Spear, the original liner notes, and a portion of an interview with Hill about the significance of the title track.

John Coltrane: Blue Train

This 1957 recording is where John Coltrane came into his own as a leader after spending the last couple of years as a rapidly growing member of Miles Davis' great quintet with Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.  It was also the year that Coltrane kicked the heroin habit that inhibited his development and when his half-year stint with Thelonious Monk helped him advance dramatically as a musician,

This was a one-off recording deal with the famed Blue Note Records and the differences between what Alfred Lion offered and what Coltrane got in his contract with Bob Weinstein and his Prestige Records is literally clear.  The production values were so much better and Coltrane took full advantage of working at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary stdio by combining great tunes with an excellent band.

The former included the superb blues title track, the excellent up-tempo "Moment's Notice," "Locomotion," "Lazy Bird," all Coltrane originals and a cover of the old pop chestnut "I'm Old Fashioned."  Then, there's the band, which included Coltrane's mates from the Davis group Chambers and Jones, who were locked in tight on that rhythm, the fine pianist Kenny Drew, and the potent duo of trumpeter Lee Morgan, of "The Sidewinder" fame several years later, and trombonist Curtis Fuller, who is the only living member of this tremendous group.

Coltrane was in what Ira Gitler somewhat dismissively called his "sheets of sound" period, issuing blistering runs on his tenor, while also demonstrating what that moniker overshadowed, his command of phrasing, richness of sound, and deft handling of complicated passages, while his ballad work on "I'm Old Fashioned" showed the tremendous growth he'd made recently.  Morgan is powerful, passionate and intense, demonstrating great technique and power in his playing, while Fuller provides a relaxed and refined counterpoint in his playing against the intensity of the other horn players.  As for Chambers and Jones, they hold everything together beautifully.

Putting together a great slate of pieces, handling five crack musicians in a way that coalesces their talents to the service of the songs and the session, and demonstrating remarkable transformations in his musicianship reveals that Coltrane had really arrived.  There are some very good Prestige recordings in his catalog, but Blue Train stands out as the best of his late Fifties work.

I only have the disc and not the artwork for this album, but, years ago, a friend bought me a framed poster of Blue Train that has hung in my office at work for close to twenty years, so that's what the image shows.

Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A-Minor and Symphonies 1, 3 and 4

This 1990 double CD release from the German budget label Pilz provides some of the best music from Robert Schumann (1810-1856), whose life and career were cut short from mental illness, but whose massive catalog of piano works and four symphonies are among the finest music from the so-called Romantic period.

Schumann was influenced by such major figures as Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn, but his performing career on piano was ended by an injury to his right hand, forcing him to focus exclusively on composition.  He came into prominence with his piano works during the 1830s and, the next decade, branched out into symphonic work.

His muse was Clara Wieck, a virtuoso pianist and daughter of Schumann's teacher, who resisted their romance even as they married in 1840 when Schumann went to court to overcome a legal objection.  Clara was ambitious, controlling, and constantly championed her husband even as she chafed at the restraints of raising a large family (there were eight children), managing the household, and continuing her performance career.

Schumann's mental illness worsened by the early 1850s and he attempted suicide before being placed into an asylum where he remained until his death.  One of his few visitors (Clara was not allowed because of concerns of his mental state) was a young Johannes Brahms, who was a friend and who the Schumanns championed, though it was years before Brahms made his mark.

The piano concerto on this set was recorded by The Radio Symphonic Orchestra at Ljubljana in Slovenia, conducted by Marko Munih and Dubravka Tomsic as soloist, while the three symphonies were conducted by Henry Adolph and performed by the Philharmonica Slavonica.  To these untutored ears, the playing is fine, especially the concerto, and Schumann's expressive, dynamic and emotional compositions seem to come out well.  The pieces abound with beautiful melodies and pleasing harmony.

Schumann's works may be very familiar, but they are always welcome to hear again and again, because of their complexity, richness and expressiveness.

Soul of Angola: Anthologie de la Musique Angolaise, 1965-1975

Angola is a country the history of which is filled with strife, from the colonial domination of the Portuguese for some 500 years to the 27-year civil war which followed independence in 1975 and which ravaged the southwestern African nation of about 28 million (with many killed and displaced in the last forty years).

So, it was with great curiosity that this stellar two-disc recording, released in 2001 by the Lusafrica label, based in Paris, was acquired, because the time period covered was the last decade before independence when political agitation grew among Angolans.  The album's liner notes by Leonard Silva, refer to the idea "the urban Angolan musics of the 1967/70 period were born from a strong desire to oppose a cultural resistance to the colonial Portuguese power."  It was also asserted that it was impossible to separate the independence movement from the "new musical creativity rebirth," which was a form of "soft protest."

What emerges on this impressive anthology are pieces centered on treble-heavy guitar, with often infectious and driving rhythms and nods to British and French pop-rock infleuences and a variety of African and Afro-American percussion styles from the adjacent Congo (a book just finished two days ago detailed to horror of the Belgian dominance of that part of Africa), Brazil (another Portuguese colony) and the Caribbean.  This reflects another fascinating combination of musical sources in a place that stamped these with its own identity.

It was stated in the liners that, when Portuguese authorities took a new tack in 1968 in dealing with Angola, one of these was the creation of a national radio station that gave voice to the new wave of young musicians featured on this recording.  Silva observed that listeners "will be able somehow to recount one of the most important stages in the historic march of the Angolan artists, for the recognition of their musical art and culture."  While some of the musicians featured on this remarkable album died during the civil war years, Soul of Angola is a document of remarkable artistic endeavor in an era of struggle for a country still seeking stability.

Masters of Old-Time Country Autoharp

Somtimes a recording is (or a group of them are) acquired out of sheer curiosity and this great Smithsonian Folkways release is one of those.  An expanded version of a 1962 Folkways album, this disc features nearly forty short pieces played on the autoharp, an instruments invented in the 1870s as a variation of a zither. 

Several posts on this blog, mainly of music from other countries, have highlighted instruments that are related to the zither and dulcimer, most recently the post on Lily Yuan, a Chinese master of her instrument.  Here is an album focusing on performers in the Appalachian region of the southern U.S. performing on the autoharp, which reached this area as the 19th century yielded to the 20th.

The players are Ernest "Pop" Stoneman, the first person to record on the instrument back in 1924; Kilby Snow, who held the instrument upright and played what he called "drag notes," or slurs or hammering on the strings across frets; and the father-and-son duo of Neriah and Kenneth Benfield, who played duets and solo pieces on the recording.  All four men are masters, though Snow is particularly impressive for his innovative technique.  There is accompaniment on harmonica (Stoneman), guitar, and banjo, as well.

Spearheading the recording was Mike Seeger, who came from a prominent musical family that included his half-brother Pete Seeger of the famed folk group The Weavers, and who was founder of the New Lost City Ramblers during the Folk Revival of the late 1950s.  Seeger's notes are very interesting and informative as he detailed the use of the autoharp and discussed the musicians, with whom he accompanied on several tracks.  Song notes of tunes that are both traditional pieces and originals by the musicians are also notable and are by Charles Wolfe.

The sounds generated by the autoharp are clear, ringing and, to this listeners, inherently uplifting.  The problem was that the instrument needed frequent tuning, which led people to abandon it when the fad wore off and it was easier to turn to other instruments, such as banjo or guitar.  More modern versions, from the 1960s onward, were improved to avoid the need for frequent retuning.  Masters of Old-Time Country Autoharp is an excellent introduction to the instrument and the Southern tradition of playing it, even for those who might not think country, folk or bluegrass is of interest.

Ornette Coleman Quartet: This Is Our Music

After the controversial splash (or tidal wave, maybe) that the Ornette Coleman Quartet made when it played its legendary run at the Five Spot in New York in 1959, the group was signed to a major label deal with Atlantic Records.

What resulted was an amazing run of phenomenal recordings that raised a ruckus among those who thought Coleman was a fraud, in his playing and compositional and conceptual methods, but also was inspiring to a new generation of creative artists and adventurous listeners drawn to his freer ideas of performance.

The third Atlantic release, and Coleman's fifth album overall, This Is Our Music, was recorded in summer 1960 and released early the following year.  It included pocket trumpeter Don Cherry and bassist Charlie Haden from his previous work, but also featured drummer Ed Blackwell, replacing Billy Higgins.  The latter was an important part of the success of The Shape of Jazz to Come and Change of the Century, but Blackwell proved to be more than a worthy successor, with his particular way of accompanying the soloists and, as Coleman wrote in the liners, his ability to "play rhythm so close to the tempered notes that one seems to hear them take each other's places."

This Is Our Music starts off with the hard-hitting and propulsive "Blues Connotation," which easily has one of the most memorable melodies in all of Coleman's work.  This high-energy masterpiece is followed by one of the most haunting and off-kilter ballads in the composer's palette, the stunning "Beauty is a Rare Thing" (which became the title of the 1990s box set of Coleman's complete recordings for Atlantic.)

All the tunes on this album are excellent and showcase not only the fine solo work, including some of the more interesting playing by the leader in his long career, but also the staggering interplay among the four musicians as an integrated ensemble--a core component of Coleman's hard-to-articulate concept of "harmolodics."  Notably, for a composer who almost never performed covers, there is a pretty straight-ahead version of the Gershwin brothers' chestnut "Embraceable You" that stands out amid the originals.  Part of the immense appeal (or the big turnoff) of Coleman's work in those early years was his unpredictability and willingness to explore wherever the music took the players and the listeners.

Earle Brown: Folio and Four Systems

Considered to be part of the New York School of modern composers, along with John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff, Earle Brown developed an "open form" system of composition in the early 1950s that allowed for a measure of authorial intent and choice and improvisation by the performers.

While some early examples of the method were very abstract and left a great deal of room for musicians to interpret what Brown aimed for, later pieces had more concrete notational concepts in them.  In any case, the composer's ideas were a radical departure from conventional composition, even if Cage became even more open in his way of composing and Feldman retained more traditionnal forms of notation.

It's small wonder that John Zorn was greatly inspired by Brown's methods and that this recording is issued under his Tzadik label.  Zorn and the Earle Brown Foundation, celebrating what would have been the composer's 80th birthday in 2006 (he died four years prior), assembled a remarkable group of musicians for Folio and Four Systems.

The first piece, "Folio" was recorded by Brown as he performed trumpet (his main instrument) along with percussion and bass, and another work, "June 1953," was orchestrated by him withh Wolff playing piano as part of a quartet. Others on the album include the amazing vocalist Joan LaBarbara, the remarkable pianist Stephen Drury, noise musician Merzbow (Masami Akita), laptop electronic performer Ikue Mori, violinist Mark Feldman, composer and electronic musician Morton Subotnick (just highlighted on this blog), and the great trumpeter Leo Wadada Smith. 

There is a stunning variety of sounds, textures and colors on this recording that illustrate what Micah Silver, in his contribution to the informative liners, describes as "Brown's attempt to take his music to the brink.  Not to leave it there, but to visit the brink in order that he could explore his way home (wherever that would be) more freely." 

Brown is quoted writing "With FOLIO I intentionally extended the compositional aspect and the performance process as far out of normal realms as I could, just short of producing nothing at all."  The idea was to be produce work between "extremes of finite control" and "extremes of infinite ambiguity."  He also noted that truth is a mobile point on an arc between two ends of a paradox.  Translated into music, that can be very challenging for the listener, but a little patience and an open mind (for open form) can be very rewarding.