Ali Jihad Racy and Simon Shaheen: Taqasim: The Art of Improvisation in Arabic Music

Taqasim is an exceptional recording issued by Lyrichord Records of improvisations by two masterful musicians, buzuq player Ali Jihad Racy and oud performer Simon Shaheen.  This 1991 album is said to be the first instance of these two instruments paired together and the three tracks, "Magam Kurd;" "Maqam Nahawand;" and "Maqam Bayyati" feature phenomenal playing as the men alternate solos building upon a melody on their respective instruments, demonstrating both exceptional speed and control as well as wonderful melodic invention.

Generally, taqasim have been employed in supportive roles in Arabic music performances, either as introductory to a song or as a connective bridge between two parts of a larger suite.  In some cases, longer taqasim performances have been demonstrated, although the constraints of modern recording limited its availability in that format.  With this record, however, the opening "maqam" or melodic development, is 20 minutes long, while the remaining two are 13 and 9 minutes, respectively.  In any case, listening to these two masters "duel" with their exceptional soloing makes the time go by so quickly.

Of note is the way in which Racy and Shaheen build off the melodic theme, using four-note tetrachords of varying scales and pitches to modulate from one maqam or melodic mode to another.  So, while there is a defined structure with the tetrachords as established within the maqam, the skilled improviser has a great deal of freedom in creating those modulations. 

The names of the pieces are, in fact, the monikers given for tetrachords, that is, the "Kurd;" "Nahawand;" and "Bayyati" are tetrachord types which define how Racy and Shaheen craft their interpretations.   The Nahawand, for example, is roughly analogous to the first four notes of a minor scale in classical music in the West.  The "Kurd" generally corresponds to those notes in the Phrygian mode.  The Bayyati (Bayati) is the more common of the tetrachords used in Arab music.

As to the instruments, they are similar in appearance, having pear-shaped bodies with plucked lute strings, but the oud has a deeper sound and is unfretted and the buzuq has a longer neck, smaller body, frets, and a more metallic, ringing sound.

Racy, a native of Lebanon, is a long-time professor of ethnomusicology in the renowned department at the University of California, Los Angeles and has recorded two other Lyrichord albums and a collaboration with the tremendous Kronos Quartet (whose Howl, U.S.A. album has been featured on this blog.)  In addition to the  buzuq, which has a relationship to the saz, which comes from Iran and Turkey (a great Axiom Records release by Talip Ozkan is to be detailed here, as well.)  He is also a master of the nay, a reed flute that is to be noted in a later post here on the amazing music of the Whirling Dervishes.

Shaheen, who hails from Palestine, is also a dual instrumentalist of note, being also a violinist.  He performed on another featured item from the blog, Material's Hallucination Engine and his connection to that collective's leader, Bill Laswell, led to a Shaheen album, released on Laswell's fantastic Axiom label, devoted to the music of Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab, who skillfully blended Arabic and Western styles together in rich orchestral pieces--this record will also be covered here.  Shaheen also made a complement of sorts to Taqasim, when he released Saltanah with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a musician from India who created his own sitar/slide guitar hybrid--another album, blending the maqam with the raga,  that will someday make an appearance here.  Recipient of a National Heritage Award from President Clinton, Shaheen has two bands, lectures, composes film soundtracks and much more.

It is hard to think of an album that has as much power, grace, skill, and art using improvisation from established structures than this--jazz improvisationis equally as thrilling.  Moreover, anyone interested in guitar music can easily see how the origins of that Western instrument can be traced back to the many impressive musical traditions of the Near and Middle East.  Finally, music is the "universal language" and examples like Taqasim show that, whatever cultural differences exist in a sometimes polarized and politicized world, music gives an opportunity to transcend those variations through something relatable and unifying.

Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages

Some twenty-five ago, while flipping channels, YHB came across a PBS program that looked to be from the late 1960s or early 1970s.  Comedian Bill Cosby was hosting a show featuring jazz musicians and there was band that didn't particularly make any impact, so it was just about time to either turn the TV off or find another channel, when, suddenly, a guitarist launched into a solo that was mesmerizing and mind-blowing.  Rather than the clean, liquid tones of most jazz guitarists, this buy used feedback, lightning-quick strumming, and effects that reminded vaguely of Jimi Hendrix.  Then, the tune ended and the program went elsewhere without identifying who this incredible musician was.

Then, in 1991, when jazz had become a major interest/preoccupation, a review was read for an album called Ask the Ages by Sonny Sharrock and the writer raved about the recording and the pyrotechnics of the guitarist.  Because the tenor and soprano saxophonist was Pharoah Sanders and the drummer was Elvin Jones, both former players with the great John Coltrane, who was then occupying a great deal of listening time for YHB, the album took on added interest.  Little did I know . . .

From the first track, "Promises Kept," the powerful playing was stirring.  Sanders, whose fiery performances of the 1960s and first half of the 1970s, had given way to a more melodic, peaceful style, hearkened back to the glory days of such great albums as Karma (covered in this blog recently) and blew with an intensity and passion unheard for years.  Jones, always a master of polyrhythmic swing, plays tremendously on this album.  And, the youngster in the group, bassist Charnett Moffett, whose father, Charles, was a great drummer, holds down the bottom and keeps a strong pulse going for his elders (though they play as if they were of Moffett's age!)

After Sanders' lengthy and impressive solo, Sharrock launched right in and that sound immediately connected me back to that TV show from a few years back.  That was a very cool surprise--never would have expected that!

Surprising, too, after the fireworks of that opening tune is the gorgeously-played ballad, "Who Does She Hope to Be?" which showed that Sharrock, for all the mindboggling technique, blazing speed and monster sound is a master musician who could tap into the soul of a melodic piece with as much effect as in the faster tempo material.

"Little Rock" and "As We Used to Sing" are also top-notch flights of creative power and ability and the extremely tight playing of the quartet, who hadn't performed together previous to this date, is something to behold.

The highlight, though, and truly one of the great pieces of music YHB has ever heard is the earth-shattering nine-and-a-half minute excursion into hyperdrive, "Many Mansions."  Sanders again blows with an sustained intensity and interest that has to be heard to be believed, but then is followed by Sharrock's unbelievable shredding, sliding and screaming soloing.  It really can't be described by a total amateur.  Amazingly, Jones is third-fiddle on this record and he has a great, rumbling and crashing solo on this masterpiece of a tune.  Moffett, meantime, continues to support these masters with suppleness and strength.

At the time this album came out, I didn't know much about the co-producer Bill Laswell, nor was I aware that the label, Axiom, that released this essential album as an imprint of Island Records was his.  Nor was it known to me that Laswell had tracked Sharrock down (he was a truck driver and caretaker for mentally challenged children) after he had given up music and worked on a comeback with him, including the delightfully chaotic quartet, Last Exit, which will soon be profiled here.  Laswell's production is typically clear and clean, with the players recorded very skillfully to maximize their solos.  As a bassist, Laswell gave particular attention, it seems to me, to bringing Moffett's bass up front more so he could be given the opportunity to show his skills amongst his elder masters.

Moreover, Sharrock's recording debut came courtesy of Sanders and his 1967 album, Tauhid.  Sharrock had also recorded with Miles Davis on this A Tribute to Jack Johnson sessions in 1970, though most of his contributions were edited out (they can be heard, however, on the Complete Jack Johnson Sessions box set, which will be one of the "For Fanatics Only?" entries on this blog one day) and what was left was uncredited.

The remarkable Sonny Sharrock (1940-1994)

As too often happens, Sharrock was on the verge of signing his first major label record deal in 1994 when he suddenly had a massive fatal heart attack.  He was only 53.  Even though he died too soon and before he could present, perhaps, his music to larger audiences, Sharrock's work with Laswell, both in solo and group presentations, including Last Exit and records like Ask the Ages, endure. 

If there is a reader who happens upon this entry, has not expressed much interest in jazz, has never heard Sonny Sharrock, but enjoys masterful guitar and ensemble playing, you simply cannot do better than to give Ask the Ages a try.

Sonny Sharrock:  Ask the Ages (Axiom, 1991)

1.  Promises Kept  9:43
2.  Who Does She Hope to Be?  4:41
3.  Little Rock  7:12
4.  As We Used to Sing  7:45
5.  Many Mansions  9:31
6.  Once Upon a Time  6:26

Wire: Pink Flag

Labels, labels, labels.  When Wire released its first album, Pink Flag, at the end of 1977, the punk revolution in England was nearing its end, or at least what has been referred to as the "first generation" was coming to a close.  Speaking of labels, it was interesting that the band was signed to Harvest Records, a subsidiary of the massive EMI label, best known for issuing "progressive rock" works from the likes of Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, The Move and others--seemingly a world away from that of Wire!  This was also true of 1980s signees Duran Duran and Thomas Dolby.

In any case, Wire bore little resemblance, to YHB, to the Sex Pistols or early Clash or The Damned or lots of other early punk bands.  Sure, the songs were short, had a certain attitude to them, and could move along at a fast clip.  But, there was something clearly different about Wire that set them apart from virtually anything on the so-called "punk" scene at the time.

At any rate, easy labels and ready comparisons are not of much interest here, anyway.  The 21-song album featured the steady, metronome-like drumming of Robert Gotobed (Grey), bassist-vocalist Graham Lewis, guitarist Bruce Gilbert, and vocalist-guitarist Colin Newman, but producer and keyboardist Mike Thorne was essential to the band's sound to the extent that some have referred to him as Wire's fifth band member.  His role would only increase in the two subsequent albums, to be covered later in this blog.

The first track, "Reuters", sounds almost nothing like the punk music of the day, though its heavy guitar, echoey bass, and crisp drums nicely supplement Newman's Cockney-inflected delivery of lyrics that, dealing with the reporting of war and human rights abuses, are far more mature and advanced than what most contemporaries had on offer.

Moving briskly through great pieces like "Three Girl Rhumba;" "Lowdown;" "It's So Obvious;" "106 Beats That;" "Strange;" "Feeling Called Love;" "1 2 X U;" and many others, Wire throw out ideas left and right, with varied tempos, unusual melodies, and ironic lyrics barely developing in any given piece, before the next one, generally quite different that those before and after, kicks in and the sequencing may be as integral to the success of the album as any other element.

This was a band that, though not proficient musically, were definitely so in terms of ideas and their execution and Pink Flag does not sound at all dated, nearly thirty-five years after its release.  Wire would go through several iterations through its history (YHB did not hear them until the 1987 record, the excellent The Ideal Copy, which showed the band pursuing a very different sound, if not fundamentally altered attitude), but Pink Flag is a bracing start for a great band not content to stand still or rest on its laurels.

Wire:  Pink Flag (Harvest, 1977)

1.  Reuters
2.  Field Day for the Sundays
3.  Three Girl Rhumba
4.  Ex Lion Tamer
5.  Lowdown
6.  Start to Move
7.  Brazil
8.  It's So Obvious
9.  Surgeon's Girl
10. Pink Flag
11.  The Commercial
12.  Straight Line
13.  100 Beats That
14.  Mr. Suit
15.  Strange
16.  Fragile
17.  Mannequin
18.  Different to Me
19.  Champs
20.  Feeling Called Love
21.  1 2 X U
22.  Options R (Restless Retro 1989 CD bonus track)

Ludwig von Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas

This post highlights a very impressive double-disc package of Beethoven piano sonatas issued by the German record label, Philips, and consists of performances recorded between 1970 and 1977 by Alfred Brendel, born in what is now the Czech Republic and who lived for many years in Austria.  At around 40, he finally received recognition outside of Austria and later moved to England where he still resides, at age 81, though arthritis ended his performing career four years ago.

Brendel was known as a skilled performer of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and others from the 18th and 19th centuries, though he is also highly regarded for his performances of twelve-tone row serialist composer Arnold Schoënberg.

Beethoven, of course, had a long and varied career filled with staggering works embracing his nine powerful symphonies (to be featured in a "For Fanatics Only" post one day), dynamic string quartets, and a catalog of excellent concertos.  In the liner notes essay "A Spiritual Journey:  Beethoven Piano Sonatas" by Julian Haylock, a musician who has written biographies on such figures as Puccini and Rachmaninov, worked as a critic and penned a great many essays for liner notes, the writer notes that "the piano was Beethoven's natural expressive outlet" and the composer was a virtuoso on that instrument, especially in physical performances that had a profound impression on audiences and often physical ones on the battered pianos, to boot.

The seven sonatas featured on this impressive 150+ minute set feature some of Beethoven's most beloved and timeless works, such as the "Appasionata," "Pathétique," "Pastoral," and "Moonlight."  The latter, titled the Quasi una Fantasia by the composer when completed in 1801, has generally been considered the best, or at least one of the finest, of Beethoven's works for piano, though some have taken issue with the popular title of "Moonlight," pointing out, with ample reason, that the "Fantasia" is more appropriate because of the great range of emotions, tempo, and coloration embodied in the three movements. 

The power of the final movement is such the Haylock quotes a friend of Beethoven and composer Anton Reicha regarding his role in Beethoven's rendition of this astounding movement: "He asked me to turn the pages, but I was too busy wrenching the strings out of the piano as they broke, while the hammers got jammed . . . I worked harder than Beethoven!"

Another nice little anecdote, touching upon Beethoven's often-prickly personality, deals with his "The Tempest," which opens disc 2 of the set.  When asked about the inspiration for the sonata, the composer is said to have burst out with "Read Shakespeare's The Tempest!"  There doesn't appear, evidently, to be much directly in common between the two works, so it is assumed the composer was applying a caustic sense of humor that may not have caught on particularly well.  While there is much passion and energy in this work, there are also beautiful moments of contemplation and calm, as is often the case with the great composer's best work.

Meanwhile, the "Pathétique," which was finished in 1798 was a highly-successful work from its release and its middle movement, the Adagio cantabile, is famed for its melody.  The work has often been viewed as being directly influences by Mozart's 14th piano sonata from about fifteen years before.

The "Appasionata," finished in 1805 or 1806 as Beethoven's hearing had greatly deteriorated, begins solemnly and stately enough, but is soon transformed in its first movement into a propulsive and driving force of nature with crashing cords from both hands complemented by some gorgrous lyrical themes.  The second movement, as is often the case with "middle passages" in classical music is a more soothing, calming exposition of a theme and several variations.  Intensity returns full throttle during the closing movement with ends in a staggering coda of great power.

This set of seven of Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas is an excellent cross-section of his works in that genre and Brendel plays exquisitely throughout.  Amateur listeners, such as YHB, can benefit greatly from Haylock's concise and clear discussion of these works, and this essay is an excellent example of liners that strike a solid balance between being too technical or worshipful and being too general or vague.  Philips has put out a disc that seasoned Beethoven lovers and newcomers alike should appreciate.

The African Mbira: Music of the Shona People

The staggeringly diverse catalog of the Nonesuch Explorer records embraces many "folk" recordings of indigenous music from around the world.  Recently, YHB was fortunate to pick up a dozen discs formerly used in a bookstore kiosk and sold without artwork or cases.  While a couple of these were duplicates, ten of them were not and for ten bucks this was a whale of a bargain.

Of these ten, three concern the amazing mbira music from the Shona tribe of Zimbabwe.  This title was released in 1971 and features Dr. Abraham Dumisani Maraire, who was a professor of African literature and languages at the University of Zimbabwe in the capital city of Harare, but was also an ambassador for the beautiful and plaintive music of the mbira, a thumb piano, the richness and melodicism of whihc belies its small size and seemingly simple structure.

Dr. Maraire died in 1999, but this recording and others preserves the remarkable music of the Shona, in which the repetitive notes of the mbira lead to vocalizations that play off the simple melodies of the instrument, while rhythm is steadily maintained via the hosho, or gourd rattle with either seeds in it or a bead net around the outside of it.  Meanwhile, the hosho player performs a vocal accompaniment that is sound-based and which plays off the lyrics sung by the main vocalist and mbira player and there is often a third vocalist to further enrich the singing of the others.

Notably, there is not a passive audiences at performances conducted by the Shona.  Those present are either directly playing music or engaged in dancing.  There is also an improvisatory flavor to these pieces, as new sections are added according to the mood established by the piece and the players and what may appear to be monotonously repetitive is actually a subtle series of variations on the themes established in the early part of the songs.

The six pieces on this record are all uniformly excellent and the other recordings acquired at the same time are The Soul of Mbira: Traditions of the Shona People (1973) and Shona Mbira Music (1977), both featuring other well-regarded performers of the mbira and accompanying vocal music.

The African Mbira:  Music of the Shona People (Nonesuch Explorer, 1971)

1.  Kana Ndoda Kuramba Murume  5:48
2.  Tipe Tizwe  4:20
3.  Misorodzi  7:33
4.  Gumbukumbu  6:43
5.  Ndini Baba  6:22
6.  Urombo  6:22

For Fanatics Only? John Coltrane: The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings

Every so often, there'll be offerings under the heading "For Fanatics Only?", highlighting box sets that the casual listener or fan of a performer or group would not likely be interested in, but which a true fan-atic would probably appreciate.

The first of these covers a set that expands upon what is, after A Love Supreme my favorite John Coltrane recording.  The single album Live at the Village Vanguard, released in 1962, took three tracks from four nights of recording by notable engineer Rudy Van Gelder and became famous (or infamous) for the mind-boggling Chasin' the Trane, in which the legendary tenor and soprano saxophonist launched into a performance without a head arrangement or theme and proceeded to blow his way through nearly 16 minutes of stunning tenor sax playing, puncutated by phenomenal variations in color, tone and phrasing and presented with remarkable control.  Van Gelder remarked that he named the tune because he literally was "chasing" Coltrane with the recording equipment to capture the performance in highly challenging circumstances in a small, packed and oddly-shaped basement nightclub.

The other two tracks from the original album include the solemn and stately "Spiritual," in which Coltrane developed a theme from an old 19th-century gospel spiritual and used his soprano, as well as his tenor, to create beautiful and also heart-wrenching solos.  Trane's work is juxtaposed in interesting, if unusual ways, by the sinewy and twisting bass clarinet work of the sadly undervalued Eric Dolphy, who was making impressive and challenging music as a leader with Prestige Records (a Blue Note live album of Dolphy's has been featured on this blog already.)  Meanwhile, the standard "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" swings strongly, due in large measure to the stellar rhythm section of bassist Reggie Workman and drummer par excellence Elvin Jones, who works the brushes as well as anyone in jazz, and features excellent soloing from pianist McCoy Tyner.

In 1963, two more lengthy tracks formed the backbone of another album, Impressions.  The title track features the same chord sequence as the famed Miles Davis track "So What," a piece on which Coltrane performed from the popular and critcally-successful 1959 album Kind of Blue.  But, as all great artists do, Trane took the source material from a familiar environment and then transmuted it into something completely his own.  The other piece, however, is just as staggering.  "India," which in its modal form of playing, but also Trane's soprano sax playing, does evoke a broad feeling of Indian music and the musician had been listening to Indian classical music, as exemplified then by sitarist Ravi Shankar and sarod master Ali Akbar Khan (these two were also recently profiled on this blog for an album of their performances from the 1960s.)

Actually, in the early 1990s, an older woman I knew from work had heard that I'd become a Coltrane fan and, as her son worked for MCA Records, then owner of the Impulse! Records catalog, gave me two cassettes issued by MCA of highlights of Trane's Impulse work.  The tracks that drew my attention most were excerpts from A Love Supreme, the tremendous "Out of This World" from the eponymous 1962 album, "Chim Chim Cheree," from a 1965 record that features some of Trane's most powerful and impassioned soloing, "Africa" from his first Impulse album, the masterful Africa/Brass, and, finally, "India."

For the fanatics, though, 1997 brought the mother lode: the release of the 4CD box set, The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings.  Everything that had been recorded by Van Gelder on 1, 2, 3 and 5 November 1961 is here.  There are 22 tracks of 9 individual pieces, including four versions of "India" and "Spiritual", three of "Chasin' the Trane" [well, one is called "Chasin' Another Trane" and features a frequent collaborator on drums, the inimitable Roy Haynes], two of "Impressions," "Miles' Mode," "Naima," and the traditional "Greensleeves" and one each of "Softly" and "Brasilia," the latter not appearing on record until the same 1965 album that featured "Chim Chim Cheree."

Trane was in an interesting experimental mode, not just by having Dolphy appear on several tracks, especially on the first night, but also in having two bassists, Workman and Jimmy Garrison, who made his debut with Trane at this engagement and became his regular bass player for the next 5 1/2 years, an oud player named Ahmed Abdul-Malik (recall that Nubian oud master Hamza El Din has also been spotlighted on this blog) who provided an exotic coloration on India, and the oboeist Garvin Bushell, a little-remembered jazz and classical woodwind multi-instrumentalist, whose career started in the 1920s and whose work on the 2nd and 5th of November, added a deeper layer of sound and color to "India" and "Spiritual."

For a devoted follower of Coltrane, who revels in his experimentalism, drinks in the wonders of his live recordings and is an aficionado of the previously released Live at the Village Vanguard and Impressions albums, this box set is an essential purchase.  Even the several versions of key tracks reveal a variety and diversity in lineups and performance that show just how amazing Coltrane's work was developing in the early 1960s.

Despite sour reviews from some critics who labeled the music "anti-jazz" or intoned that Trane should have saved his playing for the "woodshed" [in other words, in private rather than in front of an audience], or felt that Dolphy was completely out of place with Trane, these reactionary ripostes only seem more ridiculous as time goes on.  However, in 1962, the biting remarks had an impact on readers of jazz publications and, to some extent, to the musicians, especially Trane and Dolphy, with the former expressing disbelief at how the latter, universally known as a quiet and gently personality, was being raked over the coals by so-called authorities who were, fortunately, on the wrong side of history.

Whatever "anti-jazz" was supposed to mean in the light of the advancing the music as exemplified by Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, Charles Mingus and many others by late 1961, John Coltrane with his Africa/Brass collection and this live recording vaulted into the front ranks of any type of musician anywhere, much less jazz.  This box set is a remarkable excursion into feeling, experimentation, passion, dynamics, etc. and, though Coltrane and producer Bob Thiele soon embarked on a series of records to counter the "anti-jazz" label, including albums featuring ballads, a collaboration with Duke Ellington, and another with the incredibly smooth singer Johnny Hartman, there was no turning back ultimately. 

In a way, the path from Live at the Village Vanguard to A Love Supreme is pretty direct and it is one of many reasons why I feel this are the two strongest Coltrane recordings in terms of the impact he had on the direction of jazz music or music generally.  The 4-CD box set, with a great booklet featuring many photos, a discography and an excellent essay by Mark Wild, just gives a much deeper and intense exploration to those fanatics interested and willing in delving deeper into the wonders of John Coltrane's music in late 1961.

John Coltrane: The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (Impulse! Records, 1997)

Disc One:

1.  India  10:20
2.  Chasin' the Trane  9:41
3.  Impressions  8:42
4.  Spiritual  12:29
5.  Miles' Mode  9:53
6.  Naima  7:33

Disc Two:

1.  Brasilia  18:35
2.  Chasin' Another Trane  15:26
3.  India  13:14
4.  Spiritual  15:03
5.  Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise  6:25

Disc Three:

1.  Chasin' the Trane  15:55
2.  Greensleeves  6:08
3.  Impressions  10:49
4.  Spiritual  13:31
5.  Naima  7:02
6.  Impressions  14:45

Disc Four:

1.  India  13:55
2.  Greensleeves  4:51
3.  Miles' Mode  15:12
4.  India  15:06
5.  Spiritual  20:29

Orbital: The Green Album

In the electronica explosion that hit England during the late 80s and early 90s, one of the best of the acts to emerge from the very busy scene was Orbital, comprised of the brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll.  The duo, who named their group after the M25 highway that circles London and off which many popular clubs and rave party locations were to be found in the so-called "Summer of Love" in 1989, recorded their first piece, "Chime," that year and the tune moved high on the singles charts when released by FFRR Records, in Spring 1990.  A year later, the dymanite "Satan" hit the charts, though not quite as high as its predecessor.

Quickly, Orbital set themselves apart from others in the busy electronica/techno genre through their melding of electronic and rock elements, both on their albums (in a field where singles and dance remixes ruled the roost) and live, where their rock-infused dynamics and elements of improvisation worked well within the "traditional" concert setting away from the club and rave warehouse scenes or live performances that relied almost exclusively on DAT recordings.  The fact that Orbital enjoyed a long career marked by the issuing of several excellent albums and also headlined major venues and events like Royal Albert Hall and the Glastonbury Festival was testament to the fact that they drew extensively from audiences inside and outside the electronica scene.

As the band released a few singles and EPs and generated a following, it was time to compile tracks from those on an album, simply named "Orbital," though known as the "Green Album" for the neon green color of the cover artwork.  Even if was a compilation of previously-recorded pieces, rather than an album generated at one time in the studio, the record clearly established Orbital as a group that had staying power.

While much of the "Green Album" is fast-tempo, high-energy dance music, the opener "Belfast" is a medium-tempo, more laid-back tune with a notable choral sample to give more an otherworldliness to the song.  More typical are the fuel-injected "Speed Freak," given a remixing by techno stalwart Moby, and "The Moebius."  The versions offered here of "Chimes"and  "Midnight" were taken from live recordings, showing Orbital's confidence that concert performances could stand easily with studio recordings. 

The version released in the United States varies its British counterpart, especially the inclusion of the excellent "Satan" and the very cool "Choice" which has a sample that leans a little toward the more politicized themes that Orbital would work with on later albums, including the high-water mark of their career, 1994s Snivilization, the second Orbital recording (after the American-only BBC and remix project, Diversions) heard by this listener.

Orbital released seven very fine albums until the brothers called it quits in 2004, but, after five years, the duo returned to live performances.  In April 2012, a new album, Wonky, was released and it'll be interesting to see what the brothers Hartnoll will do in phase 2 of their long and successful partnership.

Orbital (The Green Album (FFRR, 1991)

1.  Belfast  (8:05)
2.  The Moebius (7:00)
3.  Speed Freak (5:40)
4.  Farenheit 3D3  (7:04)
5.  Desert Storm  (12:05)
6.  Oolaa (6:22)
7.  Chime  (8:01)
8.  Satan  (6:44)
9.  Choice  (5:30)
10.  Midnight  (5:08)

Terry Riley: In C

Terry Riley, born in 1935 in Colfax, in the northern portion of California's Gold Country between Sacramento and Reno, attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a master's degree in composition.  Tellingly, he played ragtime piano at a San Francisco bar to earn money for college and then, after graduation, spent time in Europe, playing piano at a Paris nightclub and traveling through Scandanavia, where he played music and performed in street theater, among other endeavors.  In other words, he and other post-World War II composers were finding interesting paths to "classical" composition, using experiences with other forms of music (including indigenous musics of various parts of the world, jazz, blues and others) and types of entertainment to influence their work.

What became known, typically misleadingly, as "minimalism" has often been described as exemplified by works such as Riley's In C, which was composed in San Francisco in 1964 and is often celebrated as the first work of minimal composition.  The piece is partially operated by chance (an earlier post highlights John Cage and David Tudor's Indeterminacy, a work based on principles of chance occurrences relative to Cage's recitation of stories and anecdotes while Tudor employed electronics in a separate room out of earshot from his compatriot) in that there are 53 short figures covering from a half beat to 32 beats and moving between the notes of C, E, C again and then G.  While these are played in order, performers can vary where they establish their downbeat and how long and for what duration are their rests, so the element of improvisation is central to the performance of the work.  A key underpinning to In C is that there is an element not included in the score, which is a piano used to create a continuous pulse through the percussive playing of the top two Cs of the instrument on precise eighth notes, almost like a tamboura drone on Indian ragas.   Moreover, the size of the ensemble can vary, so that performances can run anywhgere from about forty-five minutes to an 1 1/2 hours.

This album, the first of this composition, was recorded in 1968 for Columbia Records with Riley on saxophone and joined by musicians from Buffalo's New Music Center (a.k.a., Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the State University of New York at Buffalo), including a trumpet, flute, trombone, clarinet, viola, oboe, vibraphone, marimbaphone, bassoon and the piano.  Among the performers was trumpeter Jon Hassell, who met Riley in San Francisco and who has gone on to receive much praise for his body of work in modern music, and Hassell's then-wife, Margaret, now known as Katrina Krimsky, who played the pulse on piano and has had a long career as a pianist.

The 42-minute version is performed beautifully and was recorded in three segments.  The first included the eleven ensemble members playing around the pulse established by Margaret Hassell.  Two overdubs followed, one using ten musicians and the other seven.  This created an effect of hearing three each of the vibes, sax, trombone, viola, flute, bassoon, oboe and trumpet and two each of the marimba and clarinet.  Since this first recording, there have been many, ranging up to 76 minutes.  One live performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles featured 124 musicians, which must have been, given the noted acoustics in that venue, a powerful and hypnotic experience, which is true enough of this original 1968 recording.

Riley had a great influence on many composers of his time and subsequently, among these being Steve Reich, whose early work will be the focus of a soon-to-be-coming post.  His follow-up Columbia disc, A Rainbow in Curved Air, released in 1969, is another classic that will be discussed here at some point.  The composer soon after began intensive studies in Indian music, which has had a vey prominent influence in his later works. By the mid-1980s, however, his former student, David Harrington of the great Kronos Quartet, convinced him to compose works for the string quartet and a series of excellent collaborations, including the tremendous Cadenza on a Night Plain, resulted.  Anyone interested in modern "minimalist" "classical" music would be well advised to start with, or at least give an early listen, to In C, which stands as one of the great works of the genre.

The Wailers: Catch a Fire

The name Bob Marley and the word "reggae" are virtually synonymous to most people familiar with both.  While there are many other great reggae bands and performers, from Burning Spear to Toots and the Maytals to Culture to Black Uhuru to individuals like U-Roy, Prince Far-I, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and I-Roy, Marley was the one musician to emerge from Jamaica and
become the biggest international figure in reggae and remains so to this day, just over 30 years after his death from cancer in 1981 at age 36.

It would also be easy to have the compilation album Legend be the primary record to focus on relative to the work of Bob Marley and the Wailers.  In fact, YHB's first exposure to reggae was when that album was released in 1984 and it is a fantastic compilation that will be covered here eventually.  However, anyone looking to delve further into the amazing career of Marley should probably start with the earlier work of what was called The Wailers.

This was a vocal trio, formed in 1963, with Marley, Peter Tosh and Neville Livingston (a.k.a., Bunny Wailer) joined by three other members.  It was the heyday of ska and the band moved through the end of the decade into rock steady and then reggae working with such legendary producers as Coxsone Dodd and Lee Perry.

The move to international recognition came in 1972, when The Wailers were signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records.  Island had just lost major star Jimmy Cliff, who was the first Jamaican reggae musician to receive a significant following outside the country, and Blackwell believed Marley was a star in the making.

Albums as such were not part of the Jamaican musical scene, but Blackwell prevailed on The Wailers to deliver one and they had just recorded a series of tracks in Kingston that they self-produced.  Though impressed with the results, Blackwell felt that more was need to appeal to the international market and restructured the sound of these original versions by adding a number of uncredited musicians.   He also withdrew two songs that were in the earlier recordings.

Two American musicians, including Wayne Perkins who guitar is prominent on "Stir It Up" (which is significantly longer in the released version) and keyboardist Rabbit Bundrick, were brought in, as were future Jamaican notables Robbie Shakespeare, now a legendary bassist, who is heard on the opening track "Concrete Jungle and keyboard player Tyrone Downie, who was on that song and "Stir It Up" and later joined Marley's band.  There were additional percussionists and some female backing vocals provided by Marley's wife, Rita, and Marcia Griffiths, already a known figure in Jamaica--these two later became, with Judy Mowatt, the I-Threes backing group for Marley.

In April 1973, Catch a Fire was released and, while it did not sell hugely, it did attract positive critical reviews and garnered attention to a music largely unknown to those outside Jamaica.  Notably, the initial pressing of 20,000 copies listed the band as "The Wailers" and used an unusual lighter package, in which the lid of the paper lighter flipped open to reveal the vinyl record.  The following pressing, however, had a photo of Marley taking a hit off of a massive spliff and the band was referred to as "Bob Marley and the Wailers."  Blackwell was banking on the charisma, songwriting talent, and leadership of Marley over Tosh and Livingston.

The Island release is impressive, with political rockers like "Concrete Jungle," "Slave Driver," and "400 Years" leading off and lighter, but melodically and rhythmically strong tracks like "Stir It Up" and "Kinky Reggae" anchoring the middle part of the album.  The closer was the dynamite "Midnight Ravers" which, as with much of the record, showcased the tight harmonies of Marley, Tosh and Livingston.  It is also notable that Tosh's vocal features are the very strong songs that he penned: "Stop That Train" and "400 Years."

In 2001, Marley's Tuff Gong imprint on Island Records issued a "deluxe edition" that paired the 1973 Island album with the never-released Jamaican originals, which included the two excised songs, "High Tide or Low Tide" and "All Day, All Night."  While Blackwell's editorial decision may have made for a stronger album, these are fine songs and one of the many things to like about the Jamaican versions is the greater emphasis placed on the incredible Barrett brothers, bassist Aston "Family Man" and drummer Carlton "Carlie," whose playing is up front and not as masked by the variety of sounds Blackwell introduced in the reconstituted, official versions.

In any case, Catch a Fire was not as big a seller as Burnin', Natty Dread, or Exodus, other generally proclaimed masterpieces by Marley and the Wailers, but it is every bit as good as anything that followed it.  Those curious about the broader career of The Wailers, with Tosh and Livingston, and that of Marley after those two left the band in 1974 for solo careers that featured some significant successes, might want to start with the surface overview, however, brilliant, of Legend, but then extend their investigations into the individual albums, beginning with this stunning debut.

The Wailers:  Catch a Fire (Island, 1973)

1.  Concrete Jungle  4:13
2.  Slave Driver  2:54
3.  400 Years  2:45
4.  Stop That Train  3:54
5.  Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby)  3:55
6.  Stir It Up  5:32
7.  Kinky Reggae  3:37
8.  No More Trouble  3:58
9.  Midnight Ravers  5:08

2001 Deluxe Edition Jamaican Versions

1.  Concrete Jungle  4:11
2.  Stir It Up  3:37
3.  High Tide or Low Ride  4:40
4.  Stop That Train  3:53
5.  400 Years  2:57
6.  Baby We've Got a Date (Rock It Baby)  4:00
7. Midnight Ravers  5:05
8.  All Day All Night  3:26
9.  Slave Driver  2:52
10.  Kinky Reggae  3:40
11.  No More Trouble  5:13

Pharoah Sanders: Karma

Born Farrell Sanders in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1940, this explosive and spiritually-minded tenor saxophonist received the name "Pharoah" as a play off of his first name and as a reference to the Egyptian themes that marked the work of one of his first bosses, the otherwordly but highly influential pianist Sun Ra.

Sanders became a fixture in the "new thing," or the "avant garde," or the "free jazz" movement that coalesced in New York during the middle 1960s.  He recorded his first album as a leader for the small, but important, label ESP-Disk in 1964 and gained the attention of saxophone titan John Coltrane, who asked him to join his band the following year.  For the remaining two years of Coltrane's life, Sanders was a major part of his evolving sound, which moved into freer and more spiritually intense territory and garnered him, and Sanders, much notoriety, frequently negative.

Like Trane, Sanders was unmoved by the concerns of critics and others that their music was angry noise.  Instead, Sanders continued to develop his dissonant, multiphonic and searching style, while also demonstrating, although this was usually downplayed by critics, that he had a keen ear for lyrical playing.  He also pursued the spiritual side of his music, which played well in the tenor of the times during the latter 1960s.

After Coltrane's death, Sanders entered into a fertile and quite successful period, in which he released several excellent albums on Trane's label, Impulse!  His first album for that label, Tauhid, will be featured on this blog in the future, but the next release was Karma, recorded in mid-February 1969.  Making an explicit link to Trane's 1964 masterpiece, A Love Supreme, Sanders utilized the bass theme from that record to underpin his own best-known work, the nearly 33-minute "The Creator Has a Master Plan." 

Where the Trane record was generally solemn, stately and restrained, Sanders' "Creator" largely starts off that way, but about half way through begins to move in a powerful fashion towards an ecstatic state, featuring his overblowing in the upper register, while pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, later renowned for his funk-influenced workouts, plays beautifully in conjunction with James Spaulding's flute, Julius Watkins' French horn, the double bass work of the excellent Richard Davis and the always impressive Reggie Workman.  Showing Sanders' strong interest in African-derived sounds, drummer William Hart and percussionist Nathaniel Bettis add a great deal of texture and color. 

Also of note, though not perhaps to everyone's taste, is the vocalizing of Leon Thomas, who had been a singer for Count Basie earlier in the sixties, but came to embrace the freer music of Sanders and others.  While Thomas highlighted his lyrics calling for peace and reflection on the creator and his works in the earlier portions of "Creator," he turns to a creative and quite impressive yodeling style as the song builds in intensity after about 18 minutes and he and Sanders yodel and scream together for lengthy passages in what may be one of the most powerful moments on record anywhere.

For those attuned to giving "The Creator as a Master Plan" over a half hour of concentrated listening and attention, the experience can be truly uplifting and transcendent.  The nonet's synchronicity and empathy is remarkable, particularly in that latter half as the work moves closer and closer to a trance-like state. 

The album concludes with a mellow five-and-a-half minute paean to nature and the creator called "Colors."  Again, the lyrics are clearly of the time, as with "Creator," and may seem anachronistic to modern, jaded minds, but, then again, the sincerity and passion with which Thomas vocalizes and the band plays are affecting.  After the yearning intensity of "Creator," the peacefulness of "Colors" seems a totally appropriate way to end a phenomenal record, perhaps the high point of Sanders' long and varied career.

After releasing several great albums with Impulse!, Sanders recorded less frequently and with less notice during the 1970s and 1980s.  His partnership with producer and bassist Bill Laswell, starting around 1990, however, provided a revival of creativity and recognition.  The epitome of their work may well have been the incredible Sonny Sharrock album, Ask the Ages, to be covered here later, as well as an awesome record with gnawa musician, Mahmoud Gania, thorugh Laswell's Axiom imprint in 1994--another album to be highlighted here some day.

YHB had the chance to see Pharoah Sanders play at Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood during his early 1990s renaissance.  He played beautiful ballads as well as some of the spiritually powerful playing that made him famous and left a great impression with his soloing and the solid playing of his band.  His music is definitely worth discovering for those inclined towards adventurous music.

Pharoah Sanders:  Karms (Impulse! 1969)

1.  The Creator Has a Master Plan  32:45
2.  Colors  5:37

Minutemen: Double Nickels on the Dime

In the earlier post on Hüsker Dü's mind-blowing Zen Arcade, it was noted that that record was bought along with another phenomenal double album, Double Nickels on the Dime from Minutemen.  Both of these albums signaled a high point for the "do it yourself" atmosphere of American punk (post-punk?  whatever?) rock, epitomized by the underfunded, but overexuberant SST Records label, of the early to mid-1980s.

Whereas Zen Arcade showed a more obvious "hardcore" element, particularly in its paint-peeling speed-fueled side two, Double Nickels on the Dime (a reference to driving 55 mph on Interstate 10, as shown on the album cover below, where band member Mike Watt tools down the freeway at the indicated speed on said highway, while he has a twinkle in his eyes through the rear view mirror and out the windshield is the sign for State Route 11 (now State Route 110) to the band's beloved home base of San Pedro--the title is also evidently a rejoinder to Sammy Hagar's popular tune, "Can't Drive 55," which the Minutemen dudes felt was not much of a protest song.  Jesus, what a long diversion that was!) is a stylistically diverse tour-de-force of political pieces, strange abstractions, covers of Steely Dan, Van Halen, and Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, and tons else.

In fact, the album was intended to be a single disc release with recording commencing in November 1983, until D. Boon (guitar, vocals), Watt (bass, vocals), and George Hurley (drums) found out that their bandmates were releasing a double album.  Joking "take that, Hüskers!" on the liners, Minutemen went back into the studio in April 1984 with quickly-written pieces and hammered out the material for their own double album.  The record was made for only $1,100!  SST responded by delaying the Zen Arcade release, so that the two albums could come out together in July 1984.  This was perfect for some buyers, who took the opportunity to buy both and enjoy a singular experience of enjoying two landmark albums of the day.

The vinyl release included 45 (yup, 45) songs over the four sides, three sequenced by individual band members picking songs by straws and the fourth deemed "chaff," literally leftovers.  Boon's trebly guitar featuring some arresting soloing, Watt's fluid bass, and Hurley's muscular drumming are excellent throughout with the guitarist singing all but two of the pieces, which were performed by Watt.  Political anthems like "Viet Nam," "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing [what a great title!]," "The Big Foist," "West Germany," and "Untitled Song for Latin America," are paced with the covers, like Creedence's "Don't Look Now," which was recorded live, Van Halen's "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love," and Steely Dan's "Dr. Wu," and a variety of off-the-wall pieces like "#1 Hit Song," ""Maybe Partying Will Help," "Toadies," "Take 5, D," which deals with leaking showers and perhaps other topics, "The Road of the Masses Could Be Farts," and "Jesus and Tequila." 

"Viet Nam" is a highlight with its funk-like guitar, buoyant bass, and rock solid drumming providing a solid basis for Boon's political diatribe about the war.  That song is followed by Boon's beautiful and contemplative acoustic piece, "Cohesion."  The powerful "Shit from an Old Notebook," featuring a Boon rant against commercialism has a great Hurley backbeat and Watt's signature bass anchoring the sound perfectly.  The trio's tight interplay also shines on "Nature Without Man," "One Reporter's Opinion," which has a cool lyric about Watt as a mechanistic human being, "The Big Foist," "Nothing Indeed," "This Ain't No Picnic," "Storm in My House," and a host of other pieces.  There is also the great "Corona," written by Boon and which has an extremely catchy twangy guitar riff and a thumping polka beat.  Hurley gets to showcase his drumming best, perhaps, on the under a minute "Martin's Story."  After an intense "The World According to Nouns," the album closes nicely with a relaxed, funky jam called "Love Dance."  There are also little interludes playing up the car theme found in the title and art work by having audio of the band members' cars starting up.

"The Glory of Man," with an awesome bass line from its writer, Watt, and the bassist's sublime (and perhaps the band's overall signature song), "History Lesson—Part II" are probably the two most memorable tracks to YHB, although it's hard to take these pieces out of the context of a uniformly excellent album that moves quickly from song to song in its 80+ minute vinyl and 78-minute CD versions.

With excellent reviews, a heavy touring schedule to support the album, and decent sales, considering its lack of "commerciality," the band was at a creative peak.  After the follow-up, 3-Way Tie (For Last), came out in 1985, D. Boon was tragically killed in a traffic accident in Arizona just before Christmas.  Devastated, Watt and Hurley ended the band, but later formed the excellent fIREHOSE, a very different, but impressive trio with guitarist/vocalist Ed Crawford, that lasted from 1986 to 1994.  Watt has continued with a solo career that has included three "operas," including 2011's brilliant Hyphenated-Man, based on figures found in Hieronymus Bosch's allegorical paintings from the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

It's hard to believe that it is almost thirty years since the landmark Double Nickels on the Dime emerged in tandem with Zen Arcade, marking a high-water point for independent music in the U.S.  and Minutemen remain one of the great bands of its day.

WOMAD Volume 4: An Introduction to Asia

In 1982, British musician Peter Gabriel co-founded WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) to take traditional and new music from around the world to a broad audience.  With a popular annual festival and recordings, among other projects, WOMAD has been a success in its aims.  For this blogger, one of the first "world music" recordings encountered back in 1990 was the cassette edition of the company's fourth volume of introductory music, this on Asia.

One could quibble about assigning a unifying identity of "Asia" on places as differed as Israel, Pakistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka (presumably, the "Far East" being China, Japan, and what is commonly referred to as "Southeast Asia"), but it is hard to argue against the very high quality of traditional and modern sounds on this excellent album.

The first track featured traditional music from the desert region of Rajasthan in India, followed by a "roots" turn coupled with club dance rhythms by Israeli-Yemeni pop star Ofra Haza.  Iranian classical music with the lute-like tar is just ahead of a political work by a Kurdish singer, Sivan Perwer.  The rhythms of men beating their chests with their hands while women engage in a trance-like chant on a piece from Pakistan called "Mersiyet," commemorating the massacre of Shi'ite Muslims at Kerbalain 680 A.D. comes right before a pop track from the Indo-British collective Alaap.  Four pretty traditional works from Sri Lanka (an awesome ad hoc field recording at a temple), Uzbekistan (a plaintive male vocal accompanied by a lute called the doutar, the gijak or fiddle, and a large drum called a dora), Iraq (a stunning track with a 79-tone zither called the kanun), and India (an impressive tabla solo) lead up to the finale, a stunning rendering of the song Yun Na Thi by the legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle.

This is a wide-ranging record of a variety of musical sounds from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent and gives about equal time to women as to men and to modern as to traditional works.  Peter Gabriel, along with other musicians like Bill Laswell and Mickey Hart, is to be given credit for presenting a balanced and compelling approach to bringing music of other cultures to the Western world.  WOMAD's An Introduction to Asia had a major impact on this blogger's budding appreciation for "world music" and is well worth the effort if the rare recording can be located.

WOMAD, Volume 4: An Introduction to Asia (1987)

1.  Desert Musicians of Rajasthan:  Raga Sindhi Bhairavi
2.  Ofra Haza:  Im Nin 'Alu
3.  Daryoush Tala'i & Djamchid Chemirani:  Tar and Zarb
4.  Sivan Perwer:  Daye Ez Xelim
5.  Pakistani Womwn Singers:  Mersiyet
6.  Alaap:  Chunni Ud Ud 'Jae
7.  Temple Musicians of Sri Lanka:  Ritual of Siva-Linga
8.  G.Iakobov:  Assalom
9.  Ali Kamel:  Kanun Solo
10.  Pandit Sharda Sahai:  Tabla Solo
11.  Asha Bhosle:  Yun Na Thi

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphonies 35 and 38 and the Salzburg Symphonies

In 1990, when classical music was first being discovered by this blogger, one of the first recordings obtained was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Linz (or 36th) symphony and, within moments of listening to the theme of the first movement, it was extremely easy, as it has for many millions of people, to appreciate and enjoy the true genius of the composer.

Mozart (1756-1791), a child prodigy as a performer and composer, composed voluminously and with amazing creativity and was immensely popular.  Over 600 works were produced in about a quarter century and he was only 35 when he died--who knows how many more compositions, including masterpieces, he would have produced if he had lived as long as one of his mentors, Franz Josef Haydn?

He also composed extremely rapidly and completed his final trio of symphonies in only a month and a half.  His greatest work came in the final decade of his life, during which time, not coincidentally, he worked closely with the great Haydn, who, in turn, learned much from his much younger compatriot.

There is so much to discover and appreciate in the mountains of music, most of it of extremely high quality and so memorable, produced by the remarkable Mozart.  A nice collection of two of his most famous symphonies, the 35th (Haffner, from 1782) and the 38th (Prague, from 1786), as well as the so-called Salzburg symphonies, which are divertimenti or lighter music that run about half the length of the "mature" symphonies, can be found on a release by the German budget label, Pilz.

As a rank amateur, this blogger lacks the discernment to distinguish between good, excellent or superior playing in the way that a professional musician or a well-schooled aficionado can, so the Pilz disc may or may not meet the criteria called for by the latter, but for moi it works just fine.

The two symphonies on the first disc are performed by the Mozart Festival Orchestra, while, on disc 2, the Salzburg pieces are by a German orchestra called the Süddeutsche Philharmonie along with a thirteen minute Serenata Notturna by the Münchner Symphoniker that functioned more like a suite than a symphony and was "light music" that was performed in the evenings in outdoor settings, hence the name. 

Yet, even though the Salzburg "symphonies" and the serenades were usually thought of as ephemeral and not as important as "major" works like symphonies, concertos, sonatas and other more formally performed works, Mozart's skills with memorable melodies and unusual orchestration have made these pieces as timeless as the others.

Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

In January 1963, bassist and composer Charles Mingus took an eleven-piece ensemble into a studio and recorded music intended for a ballet and the resulting Impulse! Records album, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, is a staggering recording rich with textures, colors, rhythms and solos that make it a unique and involving experience.

It is also an album that can't be appreciated as background music, played while you're doing something else.  It calls for a concentrated listen, following Mingus' solid bass playing, the interplay of the horns (trumpet, trombone, saxes, flute, tuba), Jaki Byard's sympathetic piano and Dannie Richmond's excellent drumming, as well as Jay Berliner's occasional, but spectacular, flamenco guitar playing.

This blogger first heard the album in the early 1990s on the first CD release by MCA, but a new release on an Impulse! two-fer with Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus (another trememdous record) has greatly improved sound--a bonus with music as compelling as this.

Mingus, a native of Nogales, Arizona, who grew up in Los Angeles, was clearly affected the by the big band music of his youth, especially that of Duke Ellington.  Like so many young jazz musicians, however, his world was turned upside down by the titanic developments of be-bop, especially the legendary combo of alto sax player Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.  Bop was a small group form, but Mingus found a way throughout his career to skillfully take the big band sound and arrangement and meld it with the small combo component. 

Mingus also had a masterful composition and arranging style that was heavily influenced by Ellington and Parker, but was his own, weaving the variety of instruments at hand in fascinating and varied ways.  He could play it slow and sweet, sounding very "traditional", but also turn it up and move it quickly, bringing a power and intensity unrivaled at the time.

The peak was almost certainly Black Saint where uptempo, intense passages are leavened by slower, more melodic interludes, the latter often featuring Byard's beautiful touch, while the former highlighted the telepathic interplay between Mingus and Richmond.  Coloring from the baritone sax and tuba especially are noteworthy.  In the passages featuring Berliner, the flamenco touches are thrilling, as is the consistently excellent playing of alto sax player Charlie Mariano, an underappreciated player who also shone on the Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus album.

In many ways, Black Saint is the ultimate ensemble record, in which for all the great soloing, the cumulative effect of the diverse array of instrumentation, working with a richly layered score by a master, make this record a highlight for anyone interested in the best jazz has to offer.

Charles Mingus may have been volatile, argumentative, difficult, unpredictable, mentally unstable at times, but he was also highly respected by his peers for his excellent bass playing and his unsurpassed compositional and arranging skills.  When he was at his best, as with The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, he was as good as anyone in the jazz world. 

Sadly, within a few years of this momentous achievement, Mingus was hardly working, evicted from his New York apartment and struggled to keep his career going, though he had moments of excellence in the face of difficulty before his death of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1979. 

And, years after his death, the work that he considered his masterpiece, but which had a failed attempt at mounting in a live recording not long before Black Saint, was lovingly resurrected and completed by a team of musicians and composers.  This was the great Epitaph, which will be covered here in the future.

Charles Mingus:  The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (Impulse! 1963)

1.  Track A—Solo Dancer  6:37
2.  Track B—Duet Solo Dancers 6:43
3.  Track C—Group Dancers  7:20
4.  Mode D—Trio and Group Dancers
     Mode E—Single Solos and Group Dance
     Mode F—Group and Solo Dance  18:39 

Cocteau Twins: Treasure

In late 1985, the same day the Cabaret Voltaire record, Drinking Gasoline, was purchased at a Music Plus store in Brea, the compilation album (and first U.S. domestic release) The Pink Opaque by Cocteau Twins was added to the acquisition, making it one of those great record buying days, comparable to getting Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade and Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime at one visit or King Sunny Ade's Aura along with Black Uhuru's Anthem or Coltrane's My Favorite Things with Ornette Coleman's The Art of the Improvisers.

What a difference between the industrial sounds of the Cabs and the ethereal, shimmering textures of Cocteau Twins, focusing on the otherwordly vocalizing by Elizabeth Fraser!  Although in one important sense, there may be a major common thread--both created bodies of work that resonated with fans because it was far less about technical mastery of instruments than in setting a mood or an atmosphere that was, in its own way, a form of virtuosity.

Cocteau Twins fans tend to be pretty intense about the band's music and, probably, detractors are equally so about their dislike of it.  Fraser's trilling, swooping chirps, vibrato, and other mannerisms, coupled with evidently nonsensical lyrics, at least until later albums, probably rub many people the wrong way as pretentious and self-conscious.  Robin Guthrie's arrangements could be dismissed as simplistic and overtly romantic.

Yet, admirers could argue that Fraser's vocals are a thrilling combination of otherworldly intonations and soaring beauty, while Guthrie orchestrated a backing sound that perfectly matched her singing, provided you were willing to be drawn in to a sound that really was unusual and unique.

Perhaps none of their records captures the blend of exquisitely mannered vocalizing and an empathetic and complementary instrumental backing as the 1984 album Treasure (though others might argue, persuasively, that 1991's Heaven or Las Vegas is just as skillfully executed.)  After a Gothic debut album, Garlands (1982) that hinted at what was to come and a sophomore effort, Head Over Heels (1983) that was a significant improvement, Treasure was a huge leap forward in the band's development.  The album was recorded in August and September and released very quickly on 1 November 1984.

From the first track, "Ivo", named for the owner of the band's groundbreaking label, 4AD, the lushness of Guthrie's arrangement and the sweeping vocals of Fraser are totally in sync.  What distinguishes the instrumentation from the earlier records was its greater diversity.  While critics and even Guthrie himself often downplayed his guitar skills, "Ivo" reveals him to be quite capable of executing a solid solo.  Excellent as this song is, the followup, "Lorelei", provides a grand scale of power through both Guthrie's playing and Fraser's singing that is a highlight of the record.  There are jazz-like, choral, medieval (something reminiscent of Dead Can Dance--perhaps), ambient and other sounds that make each track stand out from the others and breathe more life into the pieces.  The closer, "Donimo," does what a final track should--it leaves a memorable impression ending on powerful instrumental flourishes while Fraser's vocals soar to the heights after being understated for much of the song.

But, the biggest difference between Treasure and its predecessors is the presence of bassist Simon Raymonde.  He keeps the unearthly flights of fancy grounded and establishes rhythm without showiness, playing just the notes that are needed.  In any band, the guitarist and vocalist get the lion's share of the attention and, while the band was aided here by drum machines, drummers are often right behind.  The odd man or woman out, inevitably, is the bassist, but an excellent one is a steady anchor and Raymonde fits the bill perfectly.

Treasure is generally acclaimed as the Cocteau Twins' best record and it is hard to argue against that sentiment.  The band did go on to make many fine records up until their disbanding in the late 1990s.  Though there was a reunion planned for the Coachella music festival a few years back, Fraser opted out not long after the announcement is made and there is no reason to assume a reunion is possible.  More recordings by this amazing band will be featured here in the future.

Cocteau Twins:  Treasure (4AD, 1984)

1.  Ivo
2.  Lorelei
3.  Beatrix
4.  Persephone
5.  Pandora (for Cindy)
6.  Amelia
7.  Aloysius
8.  Cicely
9.  Otterley
10.  Donimo

Hamza El Din: Escalay (The Water Wheel)

The great Hamza El Din (1929-2006) was born in a small village along the Upper Nile River in Sudan that was buried underwater during the construction of a dam.  Hamza went to Cairo to study engineering, but wound up also taking an interest in the Arabic classical stringed instrument, the oud, which he studied at several musical institutes.  He also was an adept performer on the tar, a hand-held drum from his homeland.

Notably, the Muslim society of his home country did not allow for professional musicianship, but Hamza became a master of his instrument and also developed a style of composition and performance that made him renowned for the mixture of Nubian music from his home with the rich and broad history of Arabic classical traditions.

After performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, Hamza was signed to the folk and blues label, Vanguard Records, and issued two albums, including Music of Nubia and The Oud.  But, after he signed with Nonesuch Records, he released his best-known album, Escalay (The Water Wheel), which came out in 1971 on that label's staggering Explorer series.

The title track is an epic 21 1/2 minute piece that depicts aurally a boy who works a water wheel, one of the vital functions of life in the Nubian desert that revolved around the Nile River.  Hamza's hypnotic playing of the oud mimics the functioning of the turning of the wheel and he utilized a drone and harmonic strumming while occasionally singing wordless calls that might be Hamza recreating the boy's vocalizing as he works at the wheel throughout a blistering day in the desert.

The second track, "I Remember," is from the famed Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdul Wahab, whose music will be the focus of a later post on an album by Simon Shaheen on the groundbreaking Axiom label run by Bill Laswell.  Wahab, like Hamza, was focused on creating new music using the tools of tradition with modern ideas and wrote this piece with the electric guitar in mind.  Hamza utilizes the tradition oud and the piece is a fantastic showpiece for his playing.

The album ends with the aptly-named "Song with Tar," in which Hamza shows his facility on the drum, as hand claps embellish his vocals.  It's a great way to end an excellent album in which Hamza reveals his many talents perfectly.

This blogger's first experience hearing Hamza was about 1990 when the album Eclipse, produced by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, who issued many excellent world music albums for Rykodisc's 360 series, was purchased.  Not long after that, sometime in the mid-1990s, Hamza played the intimate back room at McCabe's Guitar Shop (Bill Frisell was another phenomenal performer that I saw there--click here for more about McCabe's and its upcoming concert schedule) and it was one of the highlights of my concert-going experiences.  His mastery of the oud, evocative reedy singing, and his gentle humor as he talked about his music made it a special experience. 

Hamza El Din has been dead for five years now, but his music lives on for those who want an unforgettable journey into new variations on ancient Arabic, Egyptian and Nubian musical traditions.

Harry Partch: Revelation in the Courthouse Park

Harry Partch (1901-1974) was from Oakland and of parents who had served as Presbyterian missionaries in China.  His mother was an organist and singer and his father collected instruments so, growing up primarily in Arizona and New Mexico, Partch was exposed to much music. 

As a composer, however, he was self-taught and, going far beyond just that aspect, he developed his own 43-tone music system as well as building a series of instruments of his own design for that system.  In the Great Depression years, after some time studying in England, he wandered the United States essentially living as a "hobo" riding the rails and taking inspiration from so-called "hobo graffiti" for some of his earliest pieces. 

From the late 1920s, he began building instruments adapted from traditional ones.  After years of wandering and experimentation with his system of performing music, he received, in his early 40s, a Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue his ideas with decent funding.  By the late 1940s, he had a position as a research assistant at the University of Wisconsin, during which time he built new instruments and wrote a book based on his musical notation system.  During the 1950s, he continued to receive assistance from the Guggenheim Fellowship program, universities, and other foundations while living and working in California. 

In 1960-61, he wrote the remarkable Revelation in the Courthouse Park.  His later years were spent at La Jolla and San Diego and received somewhat more attention with such landmarks as an exhibit and concert at New York's Whitney Museum and recordings with the major label, Columbia.  He died in San Diego at age 75 and, as an outsider in the "classical music" world, is generally considered a "cult" figure.

To ears conditioned to listening to "Western" music in just intonation and established scales, Partch's music seems foreign and strange.  Much of this is because of his microtonal system and unusual instrumentation, of which there was essentially an entire orchestra, but a great deal of it also comes from his interest and application of ideas from Asia, Africa and ancient Greece.  If a listener has had any appreciable exposure to music from these parts of the world, Partch's pieces will sound familiar, but also has their own individuality of sound.

Instruments include the "kithara," a large stringed instrument with 72 strings in a dozen groups of six that was modeled after ancient Greek instruments.  Rods are moved to create changing sounds while a pick or a finger are used to pluck the strings.  A zither-like "harmonic canon" is also used with picks or the finger while glass rods are used to change the tuning for either 44 or 88 strings.  The "crychord" has a single string over a box that resonated the string's sound and a handle, rod or arm controlled the string's tension to change pitch; meantime, a beloows was conected to an car's horn and three small organ pipes.  A "chromolodeon" is an adapted pump organ, an instrument Partch's mother played, with the reeds tuned to microtones.  Partch also had adpated violas and guitars.  He also had a variety of marimba instrments made of bamboo or spruce blocks and one, the "bamboo marimba" or "boo" was struck with dowels covered in felt, rather than with mallets.  The "cloud-chamber bowl" consists of Pyrex bowls with the centers removed and which were recovered from a radiation lab at UC Berkeley.  These were played from a rack.  "Cone gongs" were made from airplane gas tanks and put on stems.  Then, there were the "spoils of war," consisting of seven shell casings placed on a stand along with the cloud-chamber bowl and other percussion components, including bamboo peces, a Chinese wood block, and others.  On his instruments, Partch wrote out tunings based on his use of 43 microtones per octave, which he considered more natural that the just intonation or equal tempered scale of twelve notes per octave.

Revelation in the Courthouse Park is a fascinating adaptation of the ancient Greek play The Bacchae by Euripides, in which Dionysus, born in Thebes of the god Zeus with his mother Semele, is denied recognition of his divine status by his father Cadmus and members of that household.  After wandering in Asia and using his charisma and divine power to attract a passionate following of primarily women (the bacchantes) in a cult.  Returning to his hometown for revenge, he is able to gain more followers, including some of his aunts and eventually Cadmus, but the Theban king, Pentheus, Dionysus's cousin, is determined to destroy the cult.  Dionysus, appearing in disguise as an Asian priest, convinced Pentheus to don his own disguise to spy on a bacchanalia, or ritual of his cult with frenzied music, dancing and sex, from a tree.  Dionysus then alerts his entranced followers to the presence of the intruder and the women, including Pentheus' own mother, Agave, attack and kill him.  When it is realized what was done, the house of Cadmus is ruined by the tragedy.

Meantime, Partch introduces a modern corollary built around Dion, a modern rock and film star (likely drawn from the Dion of pop fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s) who is modeled after Dionysus and who has established a nonsensical cult of Ishbu Kubu.  Sonny (Pentheus), a young man based in the "courthouse park" is challenged by the presence of Dion and seeks to expose him as a fraud.  Sonny's mother, Mom (Agave) joins the cult as does the town's mayor (Cadmus.)  The piece is a not-too-subtle damnation of moralistic authority figures trying to tamp down the natural inclination of younger people to enjoy earthy entertainments of all sorts, including music, and its creation in 1960 came right in the middle of the highly conservative, Cold War environment in America.  This is a universal story that could resonate in many places in many eras.

The galaxy of Partch-built instruments provides a wonderful and provocative accompaniment to the chanting and singing of the performance's text and there is also a marching band of traditional elements such as piccolo, trombone, trumpet, bass, tuba and drum during some of the modern scenes.  The main issue was that the recording was made in 1987 for The American Music Theater Festival, but the piece had only been performed once in the composer's lifetime, in 1960 at the University of Illinois.  While a Partch disciple, Danlee Mitchell, would transport the instruments from San Diego to Philadelphia for the performance, musicians were needed and the problem of training some to play the unorthodox instruments seemed insurmountable.  The head of Drexel University's music department, who happened to be a Partch devotee, offered to take on the task and also prepared the singers, none of whom had worked with microtones before.  In addition, the piece was performed at the city's Great Hall and its Greek Revival architecture also provided an apt setting as well as excellent acoustics.

Dionysus/Dion is performed by Obba Babatunde, a highly regarded actor, nominated for a Tony for his work in the original production of Dreamgirls and an Emmy nominee, who was a student of Sammy Davis, Jr. with great talent in singing, music performance, dancing and other areas.  Other cast members are excellent, including Christopher Durham as Pentheus/Sonny, Suzanne Costallos as Agave/Mom and Casper Roos, who has a highly distinctive dramatic voice as Cadmus/The Mayor.

It may take time for a new listener to get used to the unusual musical sounds, but Revelation in the Courthouse Park is a revelation into the musical and theatrical talents of the great Harry Partch.  The cover above comes from a 2003 release from the Tomato label, which is a 2-CD set running about 84 minutes.

Eric Dolphy: The Illinois Concert

Sadly underappreciated, Eric Dolphy was a multi-talented flautist, bass clarinetist and alto saxophone player whose career as a leader was only about four years, from 1960 to 1964.  But, what a remarkable body of work he left, whether heading his own combos or working with such legendary performers as Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.

Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Dolphy was performing music from an early age and supported by his father who built him a studio at their home.  He graduated from Los Angeles City College and made his mark locally by performing in the bands of stalwarts Chico Hamilton and Gerald Wilson, the latter still living at age 93.  Getting wider exposure with Hamilton, Dolphy left his employ and went to New York in 1959, the year that John Coltrane recorded Giant Steps, Miles Davis issued Kind of Blue, and Ornette Coleman made his controversial debut in New York after also having come out from Los Angeles.

Another Los Angeles connection was made in the Big Apple when Dolphy got reacquainted with LA native Charles Mingus and joined his band, working with him for about a year.  Although Dolphy left the Mingus group, he continued to work with the great bassist and composer on and off for the remainder of his life.

It was in Los Angeles that Dolphy met Coltrane who was on tour there with Davis and, in late 1961, the tenor sax giant asked Dolphy to join his band.  Coltrane had just signed with the new Impulse! label and Dolphy was involved in the first two albums cut with the company.  The first was Africa/Brass in whic Dolphy's arranging skills were put to use with the remarkable track Africa, down to the simulation of animal sounds and other interesting uses of a variety of big band elements.  On the next album, Live at the Village Vanguard, Dolphy was given extended opportunities to solo on the track "Spiritual," where his clarinet offered an interesting contrast to the leader's tenor and soprano sax work.

Dolphy was rewarded by stridently harsh criticism offered of him and Coltrane during this period and the two were labeled, infamously, as "anti-jazz."  Strangely, there doesn't seem to have been that much of a concern when Dolphy was part of the ensemble that performed Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking record Free Jazz late in 1960 and which was released just a couple of months before the Village Vanguard recording was made.

Meantime, Dolphy was signed to Prestige Records and, not that atypical for that label, made a wealth of recordings in less than two years during 1960 and 1961, including such classic albums as Out There and Outward Bound, which titles none-too-subtly implied that Dolphy was playing far "out of the mainstream."  Actually, his work always featured ballads and down-tempo pieces that highlighted his ability to play with gorgeous lyricism, though the up-tempo tracks definitely showcased his angular and rapid runs that gave him a distinctive sound.

By 1964, Dolphy had signed with Blue Note Records and made the masterpiece Out to Lunch, a record that blended his ability to play "new" music with clear references to the past, utilized top musical talent like trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, drummer Tony Williams, bassist Richard Davis and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson.  He also was a featured sideman in the excellent Point of Departure album by another underappreciated jazz musician, pianist Andrew Hill.

Dolphy then embarked on a tour of Europe with Mingus and decided to remain there, partially because his fiancee was working in Paris.  His plans included working with such free jazz stalwarts as Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor, but in late June he collapsed at a concert (some sources say at his hotel room) and was taken to a hospital.  Evidently, staff there thought that, as a jazz musician, he must have been on overdosed on drugs and he was left in a room unattended.  A diabetic, Dolphy then lapsed into a coma and died.  He had just turned 36 years old and was to be married soon.  The jazz world lost an immense talent and, by all accounts, a kind and gentle man.

Dolphy made superb classic live recordings in 1961 at the Five Spot Cafe in New York with the fanstastic trumpet player Booker Little, who died of uremia at age 23 very shortly after and these will be highlighted here in the future.  But, there is also the remarkable album The Illinois Concert, recorded in March 1963 and basically lost until over a quarter century later when it was issued by Blue Note.  Dolphy was the only jazz figure invited to a festival at the University of Illinois and the event featured a tense panel discussion that basically led classically-trained faculty to look down upon Dolphy for being a jazz player, though he did sometimes play in classical works.

Still, at his performance, Dolphy wowed many of the audience members and music students with several pieces performed with a quartet featuring drummer J. C. Moses, bassist Eddie Khan, and a young Herbie Hancock, soon to join Miles Davis.  The concert opened with a 20-minute rendering of the classic "Softly As In a Morning Sunrise" and the notable aspect to this piece is that the quartet didn't play the melody until the very end of the song, though it was referred to throughout, especially via Dolphy's bass clarinet.

A showcase for the leader on that instrument was his solo work on the great Billie Holiday classic, "God Bless the Child."  How any of the faculty, or suspicious critics, could speak against Dolphy given the inventive, probing and technically stunning playing of this piece is anyone's guess.  Dolphy also played flute on his "South Street Exit" and then switched to alto for another original, "Iron Man," which would be recorded subsequently in the studio for an album of that name.

Then comes the most interesting part of the show:  Dolphy and quartet were joined by students from the university's music program for big-band renderings of two songs.  One is a tune that John Coltrane fans will recognize as "Miles' Mode" from the eponymous album released that same year, but which appears to be a Dolphy original, though credited to Trane on that record.  The melody, based on the twelve-tone row from modern classical music, provides an ideal launching pad for solos and the brass from the larger ensemble, including future jazz notable Cecil Bridgewater, adds greatly to the song.  Then, the enhanced group performed "G.W.," a tribute to Dolphy's Los Angeles mentor, Gerald Wilson, and also his first piece written with a big band in mind, though this was the first recording of it in that format.  On both big band works, Dolphy plays alto sax.

Restored and mastered from the original tapes, this record is a rare opportunity to hear Dolphy in a setting with a big band, highlights his multi-faceted talents on three instruments, and utilizes a solid backing band, including Hancock, who went on to great fame with Davis and on his own.  There's no doubting the greatness of the Five Spot recordings with Little, but this is a top-notch record and a great overview of the amazing Eric Dolphy.

Eric Dolphy:  The Illinois Concert (10 March 1963)

1.  Softly As In a Morning Sunrise  20:17
2.  Something Sweet, Something Tender  1:28
3.  God Bless the Child  8:45
4.  South Street Exit  7:30
5.  Iron Man  10:57
6.  Red Planet  12:26
7.  G.W.  7:40