Masada: Live in Sevilla

John Zorn has often been called an enfant terrible of the New York downtown music scene.  Wildly unpredictable, ambitious, provocative, Zorn has made records that mix cartoon soundtracks, classical, hardcore punk, jazz and other sounds, often within the same 27-second track.  He is truly uncategorizable, which is one of his greatest attributes.

Occasionally, however, he takes on a project that makes him . . . well, nearly accessible.  This might be disappointing to some people who enjoy his more experimental works, but when it came to Masada, the jazz quartet that existed for about fifteen or so years, he and his cohorts created one of great ensembles of that form of music to be found anywhere in recent decades.  In this remarkable quarter, Zorn also gets to show that he is a truly great alto sax player, above and beyond the notoriety he receives for his experimentalism (and upper register pyrotechnics.)

Zorn has always professed openly his admiration for the great Ornette Coleman and especially his amazing quartets of the late 1950s and early 1960s and demonstrated this with his Spy vs. Spy recording of Coleman tunes done in speed-metal-like tempos!  Consequently, the alto sax player formed Masada with that structure, including Dave Douglas on trumpet, Greg Cohen on bass, and drummer Joey Baron.

As with the classic Coleman quartets, the interplay between the frontline alto sax and trumpet get plenty of attention, as it should.  To hear Zorn and Douglas harmonize and then play off each other's inventive and stunning lines is a wonder to behold.  However, ears should also be focused, as with the Coleman rhythm section of bassist Charlie Haden and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins, on Masada's remarkable pairing of Cohen and Baron, who keep the propulsion going at the highest levels during the faster tunes, but also show great sensitivity and support on the ballads and slower pieces.

What makes Masada further intriguing is the concept of melding that Coleman-inspired format with the emphasis of Jewish folk melodies but with an emphasis on what Zorn calls "radical Jewish culture" where he explores the traditions of his heritage infused with the modernism that has been his forte.  Because of the stellar improvisational skills of the band, the many live albums can sound as fresh and distinctive as the versions from the studio recordings and, as a truly awesome outfit in concert, Masada is likely at its best on these live recordings.

Probably, Live in Sevilla, recorded in that venerable Spanish city in 2000 and released on Zorn's label Tzadik with typically beautiful packaging, is the most impressive from the standpoint of sound quality.  The clarity, crispness and separation are tremendous and each instrument can be heard with phenomenal richness.  As noted above, the telepathy between the four members is a wonder, especially with Cohen and Baron being as "front line" as a rhythm section can be, and then Zorn and Douglas are a formidable improvisatory duo whose work complements and balances one another.  Indeed, Masada is a truly balanced ensemble, as remarkable for the slower-tempo and balladic pieces as the faster, powerful and propulsive workouts.

It is also intriguing to hear Zorn's Klezmer-inspired melodies as launching pads for these excursions into group interplay and otherwordly soloing.  It is hard to imagine that anything could be done to further expand the Masada sound, and Zorn ended the jazz ensemble's fantastic run a few years back, but there are other ensembles, including Electric Masada, the Masada String Trio and the awesome Bar Kokhba Sextet, that bring the songbook into different formulations and give new dimensions that show that Zorn has created a project that will almost certainly stand as his greatest achievement.

Masada: Live in Sevilla (Tzadik, 2000)

1.  Ne'eman  12:36
2.  Katzatz  4:56
3.  Hadasha  10:53
4.  Beeroth  7:06
5.  Yoreh  9:49
6.  Hazor  6:27
7.  Nashon  10:08
Encores:
8.  Lakom  5:06
9.  Bith Aneth  9:33

Praxis: Tennessee 2004

Bill Laswell has accomplished many amazing things as a bassist, producer and impresario.  One of his most impressive attributes is working with some of the planet's greatest musicians and providing them, rather than himself, a spotlight.  This list includes Herbie Hancock, Sonny Sharrock, the Gnawa musicians of Morocco, Zakir Hussain, Simon Shaheen, Pharoah Sanders, Tony Williams, John Zorn, Peter Brötzmann and many others.

This post, however, concerns the project called Praxis, which actually started in the 1980s as an early effort in electronics by Laswell alone, but morphed into a group of musicians mashing up sounds from rock, dub, metal, funk and other areas into an invigorating series of recordings that have shifted greatly in personnel and instrumental emphasis (there is the occasional vocal on some of the records.)

The first album from 1992, Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis), was a brilliant first volley with drummer Brain (Primus), keyboard legend Bernie Worrell and bassist Bootsy Collins (from Parliament-Funkadelic, turntablist Af Next Man Flip (Jungle Brothers) and, most notably, guitarist Buckethead, whose frozen white mask and fried chicken bucket hat gave him a notoriety and mystery, but whose incredible speed and technique, particularly his shredding style, in playing the guitar are a wonder to behold (behear?)

As great as the musicians are generally and the lineups dramatically alter from record to record, the focus is usually on Buckethead, who is from the Bay Area and was in a band called the Deli Creeps before he hooked up with Laswell.  A stint with Guns 'N Roses long after the classic early 90s records of that band may be his best-known gig, but he really has had some incredible highlights in the Praxis catalog.

There is probably no better showcase for his talents, though, than this live recording from the Bonnaroo Festival in the state and the year that comprise the title of this album released on ROIR (Reach Out International Records), which has been best known for its reggae and dub catalog.  The festival's third run in 2004 featured Bob Dylan, Wilco, Patti Smith, Los Lobos, Steve Winwood, The Dead, My Morning Jacket, Kings of Leon, Burning Spear, Taj Mahal, David Byrne and lots of other great acts.

Praxis took the stage as a quartet with Laswell, Brain, Buckethead and Worrell in one of the tents in the early morning hours of the second of three days punctuated by massive rain torrents and ran through an eleven-song set that featured some moody experimental ambient pieces, a drum solo for Brain titled "Broken/Fractal," a feature piece in "Chopper" for Laswell, and a gutsy cover of Jimi Hendrix' "Machine Gun.  A few of the highlights for YHB, though, are tracks three and four, "Night of the Slunk," and "Guitar Virus," because they give Buckethead the platform for the epitome of his astounding playing, the opening piece; "Vertebrae" because it shows a tight band moving on a fantastic bass line from Laswell, steady rhythms from Brain, nice shadings from Worrell and inventive, but restrained playing from Buckethead; and the atmospheric "Optic."

Tennessee 2004 was not released until three years after its creation, but it is an excellent vehicle for one of the most underappreciated improvisatory bands out there and special credit should be given to Oz Fritz for his remarkable recording of this festival performance and the engineering by long-time Laswell cohort Robert Mussi and his assistant James Dellatacoma.  This is easily one of the best-produced live albums YHB has come across.

In 2007, Praxis recorded one more album, Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness), which was released in Japan the following year, but didn't get an American distribution until Laswell's new M.O.D. Technologies issued it last year, after which the bassist pulled the plug on the project. 

But, it was a great ride if it is over and other recordings by this great band will be focused here later.

Praxis:  Tennessee 2004 (ROIR, 2007)

1.  Vertebrae
2.  Spun
3.  Night of the Slunk
4.  Guitar Virus
5.  Machine Gun
6.  Haunted
7.  Broken/Fractal
8.  Bent Light
9.  Chopper
10. Optic
11. Magus

Fryderyk Chopin: Preludes, Barcarolle, Bolero

Few other "classical" musicians or composers are so identfied with a single instrument as Fryderyk Chopin is with the piano.  Of the 230 some works that survive from his hand, all involve the piano and most are solely for this most expressive of instruments.  Other than perhaps his good friend Franz Liszt, Chopin was also regarded as the ultimate virtuoso as a performer, though his light touch on the keyboard made him more a sensation at salons and smaller gatherings than in the concert hall, unlike the powerful and dramatic Liszt.

Chopin's father was a Frenchman who moved to Poland in his teens and was a clerk and then a private teacher before achieving some renown as an instructor in French at the Warsaw Lyceum.  Nicolas Chopin played the flute and violin and his Polish wife, Justyna Krzyzanowska, played and taught piano.  Born near Warsaw in 1810, their only son became a child prodigy, composing two polonaises (a Polish dance form done slowly in three-quarter time) at age seven that were highly regarded.  His fame in Warsaw lasted until he was 20 and set out for Vienna, planning to go to Italy.

When Chopin was in Austria, however, a revolt erupted in his homeland, which was controlled by the Russian Empire, led by Polish nationalist military figures.  The uprising was quashed and Chopin who went to Paris shortly afterward never saw Poland again.  As noted above, the pianist performed mostly in intimate settings and a concert career was also inhibited by poor health, stemming from what was likely pulmonary tuberculosis.  In addition to his growing fame as a musician and composer, Chopin became known for his decade-long love affair with the famed French writer George Sand (Amandine Dupin).

By the time his relationship with Sand ended in 1847, Chopin's health had deteriorated greatly and the following year, following the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 in Paris, the musician departed for a tour of the British Isles.  Unable to teach because of his failing condition and his writing limited, Chopin's finances were extremely precarious.  In November he was back in Paris and lived only eleven months more, dying on 17 October 1849.  Three thousand people attended his funeral, at which Liszt played organ, and his remains were interred at Pére Lachaise Cemetery.

Chopin had an enormous influence on major pianists of the 19th century, like Liszt, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, and beyond.  His Minute (as in small) Waltz, composed in 1847, is likely his most famous work, but this Naxos label release of the Preludes and other pieces is an extraordinary journey through a variety of exciting presentations of solo piano, expertly performed by Idil Biret, who has made wonderful recordings of Chopin's works for the label.

While one of the Preludes runs nearly six minutes, most are between forty second and two-and-a-half minutes, but there is such an amazing variety of tempos (including the ample use of rubato in which the tempo is suddenly quickened or slowed), melodies and coloration that provde for a wide range of emotional content.  One of these, in particular, stands out for this blogger.  The seventeenth prelude made such an impression that it became the wedding march for YHB in 1997 and evokes many great memories of that day, including just a few moments ago when it played on the computer's disc drive.

A nice feature to this Naxos recording is not just the good biographical summary, but Ms. Biret's essay on "Interpreting Chopin" is a very useful guide to hearing his music and one of her best commentaries is the problematic assignation of the term "Romantic" to pianists as disparate in style and technique as Chopin and Liszt (or Schumann.)  In particular, Ms. Biret highlights the natural and simple approach that Chopin exemplified, noting that "playing his music on the powerful modern pianos [which were really developed fully by 1900 or so] and in large concer halls is often problematic."  As she expresses it, "it is therefore better to somewhat reduce sonority without sacrificing the quality of the sound."  In other words, the clarity and purity should not be lost in flourishes and aggressive clusters of chords and other structural elements that detract from the former aspects.

Fryderyk Chopin:  Preludes, Bacarolle, Bolero (Naxos, 1992)

Preludes 1-24
Prelude in A Flat Major
Prelude, Op. 45
Barcarolle
Bolero
Bourrée I and II
Wiosna
Feuille d'Album
Fugue

Total Time: 71'30"

Wu Man: Chinese Music for the Pipa

Wu Man, born in 1963 in Hangzhou in southern China, is a master of the pipa, a pear-shaped lute, with four strings, twenty-six frets and six ledges serving as stops, that is plucked, in what is known as the Pudong school of performing on this classical Chinese instrument.  The Pudong tradition dates to the 1700s and from an area within Shanghai and Wu Man received her instruction from such masters at Lin Shicheng (1922-2006).  She studied with Lin at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and was the first person to receive a master's degree in pipa studies and performance.  In 1989 she was awarded the first prize at the National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. 

The following year she went to the United States to study English and remained a resident.  She has had many honors, won a great number of awards and prizes and has played with an impressive and eclectic list of performers and ensembles, including the Kronos Quartet, Henry Threadgill (both featured here), Philip Glass, and Yo-Yo Ma's acclaimed Silk Road Project.

Wu Man's first recording was issued by the Nimbus label, which has issued many excellent world music and classical albums, in 1993 and is called Chinese Music for the Pipa.  The seven tracks include five traditional pieces and two modern ones (one composed in 1929 and the other just two years before the recording. 

Pieces reflect certain modes of performance, such as martial and civil or combinations of the two.  This latter is endemic to the final and most modern piece, Dian (The Points) which displays Wu Man's astonishing technique and skill, while also evoking the great emotion, especially the kuyin (or weeping tones) style.  There are also significant variations in tempo, from the faster folk-infused Denghue jiaohui that opens the album to the reflective Chen Sui, the fourth piece.

The liner notes by the artist and Stephen Jones give excellent information on the instrument and how it is played, the use of scores for the pipa, and summaries of the seven works on the album.  Three years after this debut, Wu Man worked with an ensemble on a second Nimbus release, Chinese Traditional and Contemporary Music, which further explored her interest in exploring and presenting the classical music of her country with modern expressions based on earlier styles and forms and this album will be featured here someday.

Wu Man: Chinese Music for the Pipa (Nimbus Records, 1993)

1.  Dengyue jiaohui (Lanterns and moon competing in brilliance)  5:21
2.  Wulin yiyun (Ancient melodies of Wulin)  14:17
3.  Bawang xie jia (The tyrant removes his armor)  10:27
4.  Chen Sui (Chen and Sui dynasties)  12:12
5.  Xu lai (Sounds of nature)  6:28
6.  Yue'er gao (The moon on high)  13:31
7.  Dian (The Points)  8:56

Henry Threadgill: Too Much Sugar for a Dime

It was nearly twenty years ago, 1993, and most people were still buying their music through the "record store," a quaint concept now.  I walked into a Pasadena shop and was immediately struck by the jazz album playing on the store's system.  There was an alto sax player of great skill, and electric guitarists and a drummer, all familiar to a significant degree, but there was also tubas, and African-sounding percussion and a strange, ethereal, otherworldly female vocalist, and some men singing what sounded like Portuguese.

When I walked up to the counter and asked what the record was, I was told it was Henry Threadgill, a name I had never heard before and that it was his new recording, Too Much Sugar for a Dime.  Without hesitating, I inquired as to whether there were copies of the album for sale and the reply was that the only one was that being played, but that I could have it for $10.  Sold!

Looking over the case and the cover art, there was the name of the label, Axiom and of co-producer and label founder Bill Laswell.  As I was three years in to a method of buying several albums at a time in the general genres of rock, jazz, hip hop, classical, world, and reggae, I knew both quite well from the purchase of several of the label's world music recordings, as well as some of its other releases, like the fantastic 1991 Sonny Sharrock album, Ask the Ages, featured here recently.  I soon learned that Threadgill came from the ferment of Chicago's 1960s jazz scene with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which included Richard Muhal Abrams, Anthony Braxton (also to be featured here quite soon), and the Art Ensemble of Chicago (ditto.)

Threadgill's style of composing is utterly distinctive and he has always favored instrumentation that is unusual harmonically, as well as sonically.  His group at the time, Very Very Circus, featured a French horn player, two electric guitarists, a drummer and two tuba players, but no bassist.  On two more orchestral pieces, "In Touch" and "Better Wrapped/Better Unrapped," there was an additional tuba, another drummer, three violinists (one of whom played the oud, this being the Simon Shaheen, featured here with his remarkable Taqasim duet with Ali Jihad Racy not long ago, and another being the underappreciated Leroy Jenkins), Brazilian percussionists (who also do their singing on the latter), and, on the former, two vocalists, one singing lyrics and the other vocalizing ethereally. 

But, it was the opening track, "Little Pocket Size Demons," that I'd been blown away by when I walked into that record store and is still a stunning piece, with Threadgill's agile, jagged soloing complemented by the sonic fireworks of Masujaa and Brandon Ross on electric guitarists.  The great drummer Gene Lake holds the beat down excellently throughout the record.  Ross also deserves notice for his acoustic guitar work on "Too Much Sugar," by far the briefest of the six pieces on this very eclectic, off-beat, but entrancing album. 

Since this amazing and welcome discovery, I've picked up several more of these great composer's albums and have enjoyed them all, but Too Much Sugar for a Dime is still the favorite.  As Threadgill states in his abstract poetic liner notes:

These great musicians working
together so, was some kind of Shangri-la
or better, on this side.
     Just,
     just wonderful — to get the
expected and unexpected.
     Very very
     . . . Very (Sigh)  Now it's just pigeon

Though I'm not sure what that last phrase means.

Henry Threadgill:  Too Much Sugar for a Dime (Axiom Records, 1993)

1.  Little Pocket Size Demons  10:49
2.  In Touch  8:49
3.  Paper Toilet  5:39
4.  Better Wrapped/Better Unrapped  13:05
5.  Too Much Sugar  2:58
6.  Try Some Ammonia  12:23

Richard H. Kirk: Virtual State

Kirk, a founder and main sound manipulator for the industrial/electro/techno/whatever British group, Cabaret Voltaire, has had a phenomenally active solo career, though, rather modestly, when asked how he could produce so many albums, he merely replied that the technology of computers, processors, synthsizers, and so on made it easier.

If working with electronics isn't "playing" music (though the rock musicians could easily look down on the techno guys, and the jazz people could look down on the rock dudes, and the classical performers could look down on the jazzbos, ad infinitum), there is certainly a skill involved in laying down compelling tracks of samples, keyboard riffs, drum machine rhythms, and et cetera to make a notable piece of electronic music. 

Does proficiency trump ideas? Is a studio musician as "artistically important" as someone who comes up with a great melody and/or lyric?  Is a gimmick as good as a well-structured and performed song?  Or can we apply one sensible definition of art--it's what the viewer/listener believes it is?

In any case, Kirk made his first solo record, Disposable Half-Truths for Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records label back in 1980, and followed that with several more solo records and one collaboration with vocalist Peter Hope during the ensuing decade.

By the time Cabaret Voltaire went on what appeared to be a permanent hiatus in 1994, however, Kirk had found an enormous wellspring of inspiration in the burgeoning techno/electronica/whatever scene(s) that burst forth in the later 1980s and early 1990s, spearheaded by his excellent work under the Sandoz (read: lysergic acid scientist) moniker.  With collaborator DJ Parrot, he worked on the Sweet Exorcist (read: classic Curtis Mayfield album of the early Seventies) project that issued the first full-length recording on the hometown Sheffield label, Warp, which became legendary in the electronic world.  This album also had American distribution via the eminent Chicago label Wax Trax! and the New York label TVT.

It is hard to imagine anything that Kirk has ever done, with all of his recording under innumerable aliases, that is better than 1994's "Virtual State."  From the ambient opener "November X Ray Mexico" which takes a military pilot's transmissions and leads it into an unintentional jeremiad to "fight the radio," to the sleek African percussion-driven funk of "Come," to the cooled out head trip of "The Feeling (Of Warmth and Beauty)," to the soothing and dreamlike closer, "Lagoon West," this is a record that, for those attuned to electronic music, is well-sequenced, clearly produced, and highly evocative in its use of found sound, basic synthesized instrumentation, bleeps and blurps, and the odd disembodied voice.  Plus, the artwork by the remarkable Designers Republic, championed by Cabaret Voltaire and others, is perfectly complementary to the sounds adduced by the record.

For a man with enough humility, candor and self-confidence to declare that he is not a musician but can come up with something so truly musical and enticing, Virtual State may be the best introduction to a vast catalogue that runs the gamut of electronica/techno/whatever.  Many more RHK recordings will be featured on this site and this album marks a high point among many in a 30+ year career.  It is also more commonly available than virtually (!) any other Kirk album.

Richard H. Kirk:  Virtual State (Warp, 1994)

1.  November X Ray Mexico
2.  Frequency Band
3.  Come
4.  Freezone
5.  Clandestine Transmission
6.  The Feeling (Of Warmth and Beauty)
7.  Velodrome
8.  Soul Catcher
9.  World War Three
10.  Lagoon West

Steve Reich: Early Works

Here is another entry in the continuing series of albums the calls into question how music is defined.  Steve Reich is considered one of the foremost practitioners of "minimalism" in classical music, though the extremely modern sense of his work seems counter to any notion of "classical." The Nonesuch album, Early Works, released in 1987 explores Reich's novel ideas of composition and instrumentation.

At any rate, in January 1965, Reich recorded a street Pentecostal preacher who styled himself "Brother Walter" pontificating at San Francisco's Union Square.  Reich then worked at home on what became "It's Gonna Rain," developing tape loops on Walter's voice and stumbled upon the proces of having a pair of identical loops move out of phase in a very gradual way.  Then, the two voices are edited to four and the pairs of voices are manipulated to move out of phase.  Then, the four voices become eight and, in the liners, Reich described this as "a kind of controlled chaos," though those not inclined to this type of "music," might find it all chaotic!  Still, the composer suggests that this "may be appropriate to the subject matter—the end of the world," which is an interesting way to approach the piece.

A follow-up piece of sorts is "Come Out," which was created in 1966 and has a very timely context.  As explained by Reich, the piece was for a New York City benefit to assist in the retrial of six young men arrested for murder during civil unrest in Harlem a couple of years before.  The voice in the piece was that of one of the six, Daniel Hamm, describing a pummeling he received from police at the station and refers to where he opened a bruise on his leg so it would bleed and he could be taken to a hospital and away from the terror at the precinct station.  "Come Out" consists of one loop on two channels, starting in unison and then going out of phase as a reverberation arises.  Subsequently, there are two, four and, again, eight voices.

Reich noted that his technique in these two works, referred to as "vocal music," shows "the original emotional power that speech has while intensifying its melody and meaning through repetition and rhythm."

Having completed these two landmark pieces, Reich turned to instrumental music with 1967's "Piano Phase," in which phase shifting was employed with a musical notation form that Reich devised with "a small number of repeating patterns which may be learned and memorized in a few minutes."  Two pianists play together repeating the same pattern in unison, until one remains in the same tempo while the others increases theirs to one beat ahead.  The work continues with the playing in unison and then back to the "phasing process" described above.   What Reich identifies as essential in this is a careful listening "in order to hear if you've moved one beat ahead, or moved two by mistake, or instead drifted back to where you started."  For the two musicians to perform the piece well involves, not improvised elements, but a "psychology of performance" in a complete sense immersion in the sound.

The last track is "Clapping Music" from 1971, developed when Reich and an ensemble traveled in Europe.  Although they had an enormous amount of instruments and equipment, the composer wanted "to create a piece of music that would need no instruments beyond the human body."  In a variation of phase shifting, Reich organized the piece so that one performer kept a fixed rhythm, while another moved quickly from unison to a beat ahead and then back to unison and repeating these patterns.  With concentration, it can be discerned that both performers are playing identical patterns, but starting differently.

While "It's Gonna Rain" and "Come Out" are the original 1960s recordings, the other two pieces were recorded in 1986 and 1987 for the album: Reich teaming with Russ Hartenberger for "Clapping Music" and the keyboard duo "Double Edge" of Nurit Tilles and Edmund Niemann performing "Piano Phase."

If the listener accepts the idea the music is organized sound, which this blog views as the base definition, then the use of the spoken voice and the clapping of hands, not traditionally seen as instruments, as well as a use of the piano in a non-traditional fashion, are musical.  This is especially seen rhythmically, but also in a variation of what constitutes melody.  In the tumult and ferment of the Sixties, these early pieces of Reich's are landmarks, though certainly not for those who are drawn towards more orthodox approaches towards music and composition.

Steve Reich:  Early Works (Nonesuch, 1987)

1.  Come Out  12:54
2.  Piano Phase  20:26
3.  Clapping Music  4:39
4.  It's Gonna Rain  17:31

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