Ornette Coleman: At the Golden Circle, Volumes One and Two

After two LPs for the small Los Angeles label Contemporary, Ornette Coleman was signed to Atlantic Records and recorded a series of amazing albums that befuddled, bedazzled, enraged and engaged audiences and critics.  Still, the music business was hardly beneficent to the vast majority of jazz musicians and Coleman decided not to sign a new contract with Atlantic in 1961.  Instead, he hoped to be able to create his own destiny through recordings and concerts and the move proved to be one in which for most of the period from 1962 to 1966, hardly any music was performed or recorded by this uniquely innovative and talented artist.

Last night, YHB finished the interesting 1966 A. B. Spellman book, Black Music: Four Lives (a.k.a. Four Lives in the Bebop Business), in which the journalist details the lives and careers of four then-neglected or struggling musicians, these being the protean pianist Cecil Taylor, the almost-unknown pianist Herbie Nichols, alto sax stalwart Jackie McLean and Coleman.  It is often depressing and saddening to hear how these men, despite their remarkable talents and commitment to their music, were mistreated by club owners and label executives and the chapter on Coleman also is a reminder that his way of composing and creating with ensembles was heavily criticized by other musicians, not just jazz reviewers.

Finally, though, in 1965, Coleman was signed to Blue Note Records and a series of recordings made during a two-week engagement at The Golden Circle club in frigid Stockholm, Sweden in early December were released in two volumes the following year known as At the Golden Circle.  Coleman and his trio, including bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett, perform remarkably individually and the interplay between the three is impressive.

Notably, lines notes by Swede Ludvig Rasmussen make the case that Coleman's "emotion range is fairly limited and if it were not for the variety of his music, we would certainly consider it tedious."  This seems like a backhanded compliment at best, but Rasmussen continued that "the content of his music is mostly pure beauty, a glittering, captivating, dizzying, sensual beauty."  According to him, "a couple of years ago, nobody through so, and everyone considered his music grotesque, filled with anguish and chaos."

It seems strange to think that a listener could find that Coleman lacked emotion and yet played with great beauty, but, in a way, Rasmussen's point might be grounded in a perception that unlike John Coltrane, whose powerful and intense soloing indicated great groundswells of emotion, Coleman's "variety" seems more playful and joyful in terms of the exploration of sound and, perhaps, "pure beauty."  Glittering actually seems a particularly apt way to express much of what came forth from that plastic alto sax and it is, indeed, "captivating" and, maybe, "dizzying."

Rasmussen, moreover, highlights the shock of discovering how innovative and impressive the largely-unknown Izenzon, who was a highly-skilled classical player who performed regularly in chamber music groups and orchestras, was and YHB agrees that the bassist stands out for his unusual way of complementing Moffett's drumming and accompanying Coleman.  He compares Izenzon to the late Scott LaFaro, whose virtuosity was very noteworthy.  In fact, in Four Lives, Coleman is quoted at length talking about why he so often used white bassists (Izenzon, LaFaro and the sublime Charlie Haden), while one of the few black players he used was Jimmy Garrison, the longtime member of John Coltrane's classic quartet.

Concerning Izenzon (who died of a heart attack after chasing a man who robbed him in New York), Coleman commented that "he knows that he's Jewish, he knows his conception of that in relation to the human struggle," but also noted that "he has a feeling of superiority about his playing, playing with all those symphony orchestras, but he backed up that feeling of superiorty with an ability to do anything that's possible to be done on the bass."  He followed with a discussion about the difference between "hearing music" and having a technical virtuosity, as well as asserting that a bass is "a more expressive instrument to non-Negro, non-black people" and that this was why he used mostly white bassists.  Whether using a bow, especially on "Dawn" on Volume 1, or plucking, found abundantly throughout, Izenzon's strength, clarity and manner of accompaniment are something to behold.

Moffett, whose son Charnett is a very fine bass player (and was featured on Sonny Sharrock's mind-shattering Ask the Ages album, featured here not long ago) may seem underappreciated in this context, but his use of counterpoint along with that of the bassist, gives Coleman the freedom and space to perform all manner of solos and yet keep a swing and rhythm that hold down the bottom line, especially when Izenzon steps out to try something new and interesting outside of keeping the rhythm.

With Volume 2, the track "Snowflakes and Sunshine" is a marvel for many reasons.  First, Moffett's triple time approach to the drums and the leader hauls out a violin, which he took up during his long absence from the scene and debuted only recently at a Village Vanguard engagement in New York, and launches screeching, abrasive sounds that led to much criticism from musicians and critics.  Well, so did Coleman's adoption of another instrument, the trumpet, which also makes its first recorded appearance here and which was so identified with Coleman's early musical soul mate, Don Cherry.  Probably if a listener approaches Coleman's "playing" of these instruments as ways to bring a certain "color" or "texture" to his music, it might go over better?

In any case, Volume 2 is more intense that the first, but the two are excellent recordings that showed that Coleman's mid-sixties work could be quite exciting and compare favorably with the more-heralded Atlantic years of 1959 to 1961.  Those interested in hearing these fine live albums are encouraged to seek out the 24-bit remastered Rudy van Gelder editions issued by Blue Note in 2001. 

Already a legendary engineer known for bringing out superb sounding records at the time, van Gelder's remastering on CD reveals a notable difference from the original masters.  Interestingly, Charles Mingus, a notorious eccentric by about any standard, refused to work with van Gelder because he argued that the engineer manipulated the natural sounds of musicians for his own creative purposes.  On the other hand, van Gelder was sought out by musicians and producers for his advanced studio set-ups and the results of his "secret recipe" at the soundboard.

Coleman, meantime, went on to record two studio albums with Coltrane's classic rhythm section of Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones before leaving for a stint with Columbia Records and then emerging in the 1970s with a more electric sound via his Prime Time ensemble. HIs music will be regularly featured here and the 82-year old master is still active (YHB got to see him at U.C.L.A. a couple of years ago and he sounded great, if a bit fragile.)

King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King

Deciding what the next favorite King Crimson album is after Red is a real tough one.  1981's Discipline is fantastic and could easily have been here instead of In the Court of the Crimson King, but it is also hard to overstate the brilliance of the signature KC tune, "21st Century Schizoid Man," which opens the 1969 debut with a power, adventuresomeness, tightness and precision of performance, and the spectacle that, for better or for worse, is generally lionized (or criticized) as the touchstone of so-called "Progressive Rock."  And, in "Epitaph" and "The Court of the Crimson King" are two other epic pieces that have been considered highlights of an album that The Who's Pete Townshend called an "uncanny masterpiece."

Actually, when King Crimson's original vocalist and bassist Greg Lake (later of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, vanguards [perhaps] of the ultimate [perhaps] in progressive bombast in the 1970s) pointed out in a recent article about "prog" that earlier British rock bands were animated by American blues and soul, while those of the late 60s were looking to more "European" sources, such as classical, including avant-garde, music, there is a lot that makes sense there.

In Ian McDonald, however, a multi-instrumentalist, whose flute and sax playing were spectacular and whose mellotron was a domainant feature, and the amazing drummer Michael Giles, who plays with great rhythmic surety and touch, there is a heavy debt to jazz, particularly on the faster tempo pieces, the "free jazz" that was raging in the 60s, including in Europe, though they were also highly sensitive and restrained, qualities not often associated with "progressive rock," if King Crimson could even be considered such, in the ballads "I Talk to the Wind" and "Moonchild," which might be a tad too "hippie-ish" to some ears.

Guitarist Robert Fripp gets lots of attention for the crunchy riffs and speedy and difficult technical runs on "Schizoid Man," (the amazing harmonic work in the middle passage developed by Giles is a truly impressive KC moment) but he also deserves much credit for the acoustic and electric playing on the other pieces that are not as showy, but just as essential in the orchestration of these pieces.  Despite statements that McDonald was less than enamored with Fripp's unorthodox performing style, Lake has pointed out that the symbiosis between him and the guitarist were fundamental to the sound of that first incarnation.  Fripp's impeccable technical abilities were still in development, but he was developing a style that set him utterly apart from the pyrotechnical showiness that dominated among the guitar gods of the era.

Usually, rhythm sections (Lake and Giles) and front-line sections (in this case, McDonald and Fripp) would be viewed as natural pairings, but Lake's comments and the fact that McDonald and Giles quit at the end of 1969 after an American tour to support the album, released two months prior, are quite interesting.  It should be added that, while Lake is not generally considered as good on his instrument as his band mates were on theirs, he held down the bottom and supplied the rhythm and accompaniment to the soloists just fine, to this listener.  More importantly, he had a fine singing voice and his vocals, particularly on "Epitaph," are indispensable to the high regard this record has.

There is the role of lyricist Peter Sinfield, who also developed the lighting for the band's live shows that, at the time, was considered very inventive.  Sinfield's lyrics have been the subject of much heated debate concerning his wordplay, density, impressionistic content, and perceptions of grandiose, obtuse and overblown self-consciousness that many attach to his contributions.  To YHB, Sinfield is far more restrained and direct on this album than with later releases and "Schizoid Man" and "Epitaph" are, to this listener, the best of his contributions as he wrote with interesting metaphors, highly descriptive language and a greater directness  and comprehension than would be found later.  With "The Court of the Crimson King," Sinfield's lyrics have the kind of impressionistic bent that would be greatly elaborated on later, but more simplified and clearer (even with "purple pipers," "black queens," "pattern jugglers" and "yellow jesters" being central characters.)

Much has been said about the almost miraculous and spiritual nature of the rehearsals and early live shows conducted by the newly-formed band in early 1969, leading to the self-produced recordings of the summer in which the band trusted its instincts and group consensus to build a remarkable record.  A generous loan by Lake's uncle and what the band called its "good fairy," that ineffable musical something that guided the group through a tumultuous and turbulent year, were also essential qualities.

Then, there is the cover art, consisting of an unforgettably disturbing painting of a screaming man (a schizoid man, perhaps?) conceived by Barry Godber, a friend of Sinfield's.  It has its own life apart from the music, while also helping to define it.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that the remixing done for the 40th Anniversary Edition, released by Fripp's independent Discipline Global Mobile (DGM) label, in 2009 by Steven Wilson of The Porcupine Tree, is superior, as is the case with all of the edition's releases.  Bonus tracks include a full version of "Moonchild," which has a much-discussed lengthy and quiet improvisation featuring Fripp, Giles and Lake that they described as magical when it came upon them in the studio, but which has been dismissed as aimless and boring by others; alternate performances of the ballad "I Talk to the Wind"; the backing track to "Epitaph" and a wind session.

You had to be there in 1969 to fully appreciate the phenomenon that was King Crimson, the album that was "In the Court of the Crimson King", and the heavy, loud and intense live shows the group performed in England and America that year.  As Fripp has said, the album only hinted at the power found live, but it still leaves an indelible impression (good or bad) and "21st Century Schizoid Man" is truly one of the greatest of all rock songs (even Kanye West used it as the basis for his hit song, "Power," though Fripp had to speak directly to him to get permission granted!)  Discipline is right up there, though, and it will be the next Crimson album to be spotlighted here.

Robert Schumann: Carnaval, Scenes from Childhood, Arabesque

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was one of the foremost composers of the so-called Romantic Age.  He was born at Zwickau, Saxony and showed great musical talent at a young age, as most composers tend to do, but he was also highly educated in literature and wrote two boyhood novels, due to the influence of his bookseller-publisher-author father, who, however, also encouraged his musical talent.  Schumann also pursued legal studies after his father's death and studies in Leipzig and Heidelberg.

After hearing the legendary Italian violinist, Niccolo Paganini, in 1830, however, Schumann decided to forego the law and studied piano with Frederich Wieck, who believed that his pupil would be a top-notch concert pianist.  During a rigorous period of study, though, Schumann permanently damaged his right hand and had to abandon his performance plans.  Instead, he delved deeply into composition.

By 1832, he was creating his earliest important works, but Schumann's highly sensitive nature, however, led to a suicide attempt the following year after he lost his brother and the brother's wife in a cholera epidemic.  Periodic emotional and mental problems, compounded by health issues, plagued the composer for the remaining decade and more of his life.

Engaged for a time to Ernestine von Fricken, the adopted daughter of a nobleman, Schumann began developing feelings, soon reciprocated, for his piano teacher's young daughter, Clara Wieck, who was becoming well known for her piano performances.  When the composer learned that Ernesting was illegitimate, he ended their relationship and then found that Clara's father steadfastly refused to accept his intentions towards Clara.  Waiting until 1840, when she was of legal age and not subject to the consent of her father, the two married and bore eight children.

Meantime, some of his earlier piano works form the basis for this album released by the Infinity imprint of Sony Music Entertainment in 1993 and which was purchased new by YHB as his first Schumann CD.  It features the 21-piece Carnaval, composed in 1834-35, and subtitled "Little Scenes on Four Notes."  This refers to the fact that the four notes referred to were musical cryptograms embedded in the music, which deals with masked participants of the festival that falls before Lent and characters associated with the Italian masked theater of commedia dell'arte.

The notes are A, B, C and E-flat, but are represented by the German letters A, C, H and S, with three combinations of these notes forming the musical puzzles.  The A and S symbolize the town of Asch, now in the Czech Republic and which was the hometown of Ernestine von Fricken, while the four letters A-C-S-H represent the German word for "carnival," which is Fasching.  Moreover, "asch" is Ash Wednesday.  And, these letters represent the name Robert Alexander Schumann, with the "A" from his middle name and the others from his surname.  Then, there is the S-C-H-A in his surname, as well.

Schumann's debt to the great Franz Schubert echoes throughout the piece, which are largely variations on themes from the earlier composer.  Carnaval was so demanding technically that it was little played during the composer's lifetime and for years afterward, though Franz Liszt did perform portions in 1840.  There are sections named for one of his inspiration, Paganini, and another for his close friend, Chopin.  Others refer to his then-fiancee Ernestine, another to Clara Wieck, and two divergent sides of Schumann's character, the more emotional and more rational elements.  As performed by Russian pianist and Schumann specialist, Pavel Jegorov (Egerov), the Carnaval is a wonder of emotional and highly inventive performance.

Considered "droll little things" by Schumann, the "Scenes from Childhood" became a major piano work of the composer.  These thirteen pieces (there had been thirty originally) reflect Schumann's reminiscences of his childhood and bear such titles as "From Foreign Lands and Peoples," referring evidently to his voracious reading habits; "Blind Man's Buff," being the time-honored children's game; "Dreaming," an obviously reflective and airy work; "Knight of the Hobbyhorse," another famed piece with a rollicking tempo;  and "Child Falling Asleep."  Of all, though, it is "Dreaming" (or Träumerei) that remains one the landmark Schumann pieces, a slow, hauntingly gorgeous melody that is instantly enjoyable and affecting and "Almost Too Serious" is not far behind in its beauty.  Indeed, his declaration to Clara that the pieces were "peaceful, tender, and happy, like our future" is   Throughout, these pieces are simpler in structure, but they also feature a melodic beauty that has made them favorites of listeners ever since.  They also embody the important, but often ignored, premise the "less is more."

Lastly, there is the sublime Arabesque, which Schumann claimed he wrote in 1839 simply to stir the emotions of the women of Vienna.  Technically, the key of C was considered more delicate and feminine as opposed to the sharper keys.  It has also been said that its emotional weight was derived from the composer's then-unrequited love for Clara and that he poured his soul's torment into these pieces.  The 6-plus minutes of this piece have certainly transcended their ephemeral origins and have been another mainstay of Schumann's repertoire.

As a sampler of some of Schumann's most enduring piano work, this CD is an excellent one and Jegorov/Egorov's playing is beautiful.

Bali: Gamelan and Kecak

Another remarkable entry in the Nonesuch Explorer series of world music recordings is this 1989 release of Balinese gamelan and kecak recordings, supervised by David Lewiston in 1987.  Lewiston, who made many important contributions to the Explorer series, made his first trip to the island of Bali, in the region of Java in the Indonesian archipelago, in 1966 and made recordings that resulted in two albums that were early entries in the series.

Returning to the area two decades later, he remarked in the notes to this album, he found the process of arranging for the recordings to be much more difficult, because the pace of life and the gradual eroding of tradition complicated matters significantly.

Nonetheless, he was able, over a period from May to October, to record performances that showed that the unique music of Bali was still there to be savored and shared.  Some of these were recorded at the Bali Art Festival in the island's capital, Den Pasar.  The first piece is from the opening parade, in which some forty ensembles participated, and the 12-minute excerpt captures the sounds of a marching band called a beleganjer, which features songs, drums, flutes and cymbals; a gamelan with flutes, gongs, drums and a metallophone, a xylophone with tuned bronze bars in different pitches than heard in the Western version; a grumbungan ensemble performing on wood cowbells and slit drums; another gamelan called salunding, which includes tones like a bell; and another sample of beleganjer.

A village gamelan using a style developed in the 1910s comprises a ten-minute track with a notable harmony in the metallophone and a rollicking syncopation.  Following is a duet of a Balinese version of the jew's harp called genggong performed by brothers.  A four-minute frog song mimics these reptiles through the enggung, which is a piece of palm bark which is used as a wind instrument creating a very reedy sound. 

An example of the oldest type of gamelan found in Bali follows with the metallophone having iron bars and the result is a gorgeous one, showing its ancient origins of perhaps two thousand years.  Then comes a six-minute gamelan including the metallophone and the rich, sonorous tones of the gong, tempered by the high pitches of the flute. 

There is also a piece that has music accompanying puppet performances of tales that are taken from the ancient Sanskrit epics of India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the puppets, made from leather, create shadows on a sacreen, hence the term "shadow play."  Two metallophones set at different octaves are played, but with the twist of the performer having to play with mallets in both hands, each of which plays a separate melody.  In addition, each note is followed by a damper by the heel of the hand and the players have to use syncopation in interlocking fashion.  Imagine the difficulty in learning to play in this way.

The kecak is a form of performing in which a chant of "tjak, tjak, tjak, tjak . . ." is done by a large ensemble of men, in this case 80, that reminds the listener of many of the trance pieces found in other parts of the world, but with this unique Balinese manner.  Coming to creation in the 1930s, the kecak is based on the story of monkeys who aided King Rama in his battle with a foe in the great Ramayana epic.  Finally, a nearly thirteen-minute gamelan based on a dance for warriors concludes this fascinating and varied album.

There is nothing like gamelan and Balinese music and its influence in the West has been shown in such areas as the piano work, Gnossienne, by the iconoclastic French composer Erik Satie, pieces by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, and modern composers like John Cage, Steve Reich, Mike Oldfield and, especially, Lou Harrison, whose work will be touched upon here soon.  Also to be covered here soon is the 1980s work of King Crimson, whose guitarists Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew made frequent use of complex interlocking duets that Fripp dubbed early on in that period as "rock gamelan."

It is striking that music from a relatively small part of the world should have such a major influence on the larger parts of it, but this is testimony to the hypnotic beauty and otherworldliness of Balinese music.

Art Ensemble of Chicago: Bap-Tizum

Emerging in the fertile 1960s free jazz scene in Chicago and members of the remarkable collective called the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM), which included such performers as Henry Threadgill (covered here recently) and Anthony Braxton (who soon will be), three members of the quintet later known as The Art Ensemble of Chicago came together through the recordings of saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, who recorded three albums from 1966 to 1969 that featured trumpeter Lester Bowie and bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut.  Saxophonist Joseph Jarman then became associated with this trio and, by 1969, the Art Ensemble was officially formed.  A year later, the group was augmented by drummer and percussionist (though everyone had an impressive batterie of percussion instruments which distinguished the AECO) Famoudou Don Moye, who was born in Rochester, New York and studied in Detroit before emigrating to Europe when he joined the Ensemble in 1970.

With its members playing an incredible multitude of instruments, some wearing African clothing and face paint, while others wore "Western" garb, and performing music that, by turns, could be fantastically powerful, intense and serious and then joyful, humorous and irreverent, the band combined a striking visual component with a totally catholic approach to sound that set them apart from anyone else in the jazz world.

The Art Ensemble spent most of its earlier years in France, where a series of notable recordings for the BYG/Actuel label were made, some of which will make their appearance here down the road.  In 1972, the group had its first appearance at an American festival, when it performed at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, held at a field named for the famed blues performer Otis Spann, on 9 September 1972.

Introduced by John Sinclair, poet, radical founder of the anti-racist White Panthers, and manager of Detroit's legendary rock band, the MC5, the group performed a 45-minute set that is comprised of unusual titles like "Nfamoudou-Boudougou," "Immm," "Unanka," and "Oouffnoon," and the music is generally as impressionistic as the titles with the first track displaying all the percussion pyrotechnics the group used so effectively over the years.  "Unanka" features an unusual sax/bas duet with Favors and Mitchell, whereas Mitchell's frenetic soloing is underscored by Moye's percussion in "Oouffnoon."  "Ohnedaruth" highlights Bowie's powerful and innovative trumpet playing and the use of Jarman and Mitchell's deep, rich bass saxes creates a memorable piece that is a highlight of the set.  By the time the band settled into the perfect, tight swing of "Odwalla," (proof, if needed, that the Ensemble could play "in the tradition" and not just so-called "free jazz") the audience had gone from enthusiastic to crazed and the roar that rose up after the AECO completed this mind-blowing concert is remarkable and spine-tingling.  It makes you wish you'd been there to experience the aural and visual spectacle and, 40 years later in a few weeks, it sounds fresh and not dated, at all.

Also surprising was the fact that this record was released on the major label, Atlantic, which was then making its greatest profits from the likes of Led Zeppelin, though there was an impresive jazz resume with the label, including with John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman recording for it in the late 50s and early 60s.  Michael Cuscuna, who had done a great deal of jazz production, was in the audience and convinced the label to release this album as an unedited whole, capturing the excitement and unpredictability of one of the best of all jazz ensembles.

The Art Ensemble of Chicago:  Bap-Tizum (Atlantic, 1973)

1.  Nfamousdou-Boudougou  4:16
2.  Immm  5:31
3.  Unanka  10:44
4.  Oouffnoon  3:25
5.  Ohnedaruth  15:00
6.  Odwalla  5:42

Black Uhuru: Red

In 1984 (Jesus, that was almost 30 years ago!), a friend asked if YHB would go to a concert at the Pacific Amphitheater in Orange County featuring two performers that were completely unknown to said blogger.  One was Nigerian juju legend King Sunny Ade and the other was reggae band Black Uhuru.  World music was completely foreign (pardon the pun) and the only reggae heard to date was Bob Marley and the Wailers' masterful compilation, Legend, issued the previous year.  Being almost completely beholden to alternative rock at that time, there was more than a little uncertainty about how this concert was going to go.

Turns out that the show was easily one of the best concerts every experienced.  Black Uhuru took the stage first and, being in the third row, the sensation of having the concrete floor and seats vibrate with the powerful and deep bass of Robbie Shakespeare (a.k.a. Basspeare) and the crisp snare snaps from drummer Sly Dunbar (a.k.a., Dunbar), otherwise known as the Riddim Twins, was a marvel.  Frontman Michael Rose was a natural, singing in his unique keening style with a passion and energy the revved the crowd up.  The spliffs were lit, the bass and drums were booming, a particularly searing guitar solo stands out, and Rose's skanking and singing kept everyone in a good, mellow mood.

The headliner had something like a 28-piece band and that part of the show began with one hand drummer, then another, and another, and yet another, followed by dancers, a bass player, a drummer, a rhythm guitarist, saxophonists, trumpeters and etc.  Finally, as the large ensemble established a tight, rhythmic and danceable groove and stayed on it for several minutes, a tall, thin figure, resplendent in white, ambled onto the stage, plugged in his white guitar and began an agile, nimble, clean and compelling guitar solo before singing a song that included the usual call-and-response elements with his backup singers.  King Sunny led the group through a stellar performance that had the crowd on its feet and dancing the entire time.

What a show from both King Sunny and Black Uhuru, artists whose new albums on Island Records were being somewhat heavily promoted at the time.  In advance of that show, YHB picked up the LPs, which were Aura by King Sunny and Anthem by Black Uhuru.  These were fine recordings, but nothing could match the immediacy, power and intensity of the live shows, especially from that awesome third row seat.

Not long after the concert, other Black Uhuru albums were quickly snapped up, all of which will be featured here, including Sinsemilla, Tear It Up (Live), Red, Chill Out and The Dub Factor.  Of these the 1981 record, Red, is probably the standout.

Formed as Uhuru in 1972 in Kingston's Waterhouse District, the group initially featured Garth Dennis, Don Carlos and Duckie Simpson, with the latter being the sole mainstay throughout the band's long career.  Carlos soon left for a solo career and Dennis joined the well-known Wailing Souls.  Simpson found two other singers, including Errol Nelson and young Michael Rose, and, in 1977, the first album, Love Crisis, was released.  After Nelson departed, South Carolina native Puma Jones joined and lent the first female voice to the group, then known as Black Uhuru.  A second album, Showcase, followed in 1979, but some successful singles and concerts led to a signing with powerhouse Island Records and the debut for that label, Sinsemilla, was issued in July 1980.  More importantly, the trio began working with Sly and Robbie, whose playing and production skills transformed the group, which already had an excellent songwriter in Rose, who used strong political and social commentary in his lyrics.

Red, however, followed quickly and established the group as a major player in reggae.  The opening track is the fantastic "Youth of Eglington," which highlights the specific type of melody and harmony that defined the Black Uhuru sound, along with incredibly tight and inventive rhythms from Dunbar and Shakespeare.  Cannily, Rose tied the violence of youths in Kingston, an ongoing reflection of chronic poverty and dislocation, with problems in England, specifically the heavily West Indian populated area of Brixton in London.  This acknowledged the growing popularity of reggae in the UK and broadened the band's audience.

Following is another tremendous Rose track, "Sponji Reggae," which highlights that specialized vocal style of his with some very cool keyboard and percussion effects that used new technology, such as synthesizers and syndrums, and pointed the way, for better or for worse, toward the future movements of dancehall and dubstep.

In truth, all eight of the songs are strong pieces, five by Rose, two by him and Simpson, and the latter contributing the excellent "Journey," which is this blogger's third favorite track as it invokes true Rastafarian beliefs, including the fear of Babylon's "scientifical advancement" corrupting the mind.  "Utterance" praises the rasta's faith and reminding that "it's not what you do but how you do it / it's now what you say but how you say it."  The closer "Carbine" used a synth effect to drive home the point of keeping unity in the face of numbing violence which rocked Jamaica in the late 1970s and into the 1980s.

Red is a triumph of the uneasy merger of country-based roots reggae, spiritual and political concerns, and the emerging technological and production techniques that would eventually overwhelm the other two, to the detriment, IMHO, of reggae. 

Still, for a brief years after the staggering blow of the loss of Bob Marley to cancer in 1981, Black Uhuru seemed the one reggae group that could maintain an international appear and stature anywhere near that of the great Tuff Gong.

The excellent Chill Out followed, along with the incredible dub record, The Dub Factor.  A 1980 recording known as Black Uhuru was repackaged as Gues Who's Coming to Dinner and is another quality album, even featuring a blistering repeated guitar line by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones  By the time Anthem appeared in 1984, however, the cracks were beginning to show, as Rose and Simpson feuded, especially concerning Rose's importance as singer and songwriter.  Rose left and was basically away from the music scene, tending to his country farm, for several years. 

Simpson and Jones continued on with Sly and Robbie, but the recordings weren't as strong and Jones left the group when she developed cancer, from which she died in 1990.  Simpson even reunited with his original comrades, Carlos and Dennis in the mid-90s, though this line up soon disbanded.  Though there hasn't been a studio album released in over a decade, there have been periodic tours, even a reunion in 2004 with Rose that lasted two years.  Simpson has recently brought a new lineup out, though the glory days of the first half of the 1980s are long past.

George Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children/Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)

This blogger's first encounter with the magical work of composer George Crumb (born in 1929) came through the title track of Kronos Quartet's Black Angels, a 1970 piece of disturbing power featuring electric violins in a thematic tie to the Vietnam War, covered on this blog.  This stirred an interest, though long delayed, of exploring Crumb's work.

This Elektra Nonesuch recording takes two pieces from the composer's body of work that have very different structural components.  "Ancient Voices of Children" is from 1970 and, as Crumb states on his Web site (see here), these six pieces forming a song cycle capped off an eight-year period of absorption with the incredible poetry of Federick Garcia Lorca, whose death at the hands of Spanish fascists during the era of Francisco Franco's ascendance during the civil war that ravaged that country in the 1930s enhanced his legendary status. 

Female and young male soprano vocalizations of Lorca's evocative words are brilliantly supported by a variety of unusual instruments, including a toy piano, a musical saw, an oboe, harmonica, mandolin, harp and a variety of percussion.  Four of the six pieces use Lorca' poetry, while the other two are interludes.  Perhaps the most striking effect is the female soprano's singing into a piano, which creates an unusual vocal effect with the strings.  As Crumb notes, the boy's voice is heard in the background until the last song when he joins the female. 

Also of note is the way the composer has the instrumentalists play with varying pitches, as well as uses a palette of vocalizations such as whispers, singing and shouting, which further support the mystical and dreamlike qualities of the music and soprano singing.  The inventive mixing of instruments, changes in their pitch and tonality, and the unusual vocal elements make "Ancient Voices of Children" an unforgettable experience, especially if you've read Lorca's poetry, which I did some years ago.

As to "Music for a Summer Evenig," this 1974 work features two amplified pianos and a pair of percussionists, a structure employed first by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, who will be featured here someday, in the 1930s.  There is a great variety of percussion instruments used in this piece, including some that are ancient and exotic, qualities that recur frequently through Crumb's work, including Tibetan prayer stones, African log drums and thumb piano, a metal "thunder sheet," and slide-whistles. 

As with the first piece, "Music" employs an influence from poetic quotations and uses all-instrumental interludes betwen them.  The amplified pianos also have some different sounds associated with them, including one movement in which sheets of paper are laid over the strings.  Not surprisingly, given Crumb's fascination with the duende (or passion) of Lorca, one of these is the mystical and spiritual Rainer Maria Rilke, whose work was also read by this blogger back in the early 90s.

Crumb, who has won a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy, among many other awards and achievements, but is shamefully underrecognized and appreciated, is one of the truly unique and masterly composers of modern music.  This excellent recording, issued in 1987, is another stellar release by the Elektra Nonesuch label.

Music of the Whirling Dervishes

Ahmet Ertegun, the guiding force behind the massive success of Atlantic Records, hailed from Turkey and so the release in 1979 of Music of the Whirling Dervishes was a special project of his and no wonder.  This fascinating album contains 79 minutes of remarkable, spiritual, and majestic music recorded during a tour of the previous year that showcases the ecstatic dancing, chanting and instrumental performances embodying the mystical traditions of Sufi religious observances.

Vocalisations are followed by solo improvisatory performances on the ney, a flute-like instrument, and then ensemble pieces with ney, drums, singing and dancing.  Naturally, one who would have had to have been present at the live shows to observe and absorb the full effect of the combination of aural and visual presentations.

The tradition of whirling by the Mevlevi Sufis, drawing origins with Sunni Islam back to the amazing poetry of the great Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, typically known simply as Rumi,  dates back seven hundred years or so and the ritual is an expression of faith augmented by music and vocals.  As the intensity of the music builds, so does the speed of the whirling which transports the participants into a trance state.  There are many parallels to this throughout the world, such as the phenomenal gnawa music of northwest Africa (to be covered soon here, as well,) where drums, handclaps, chanting and singing, and instrumental performances lead to a similar result.

The album begins with a eulogy of twelve and a half minutes, which has a beautiful haunting quality, especially with the advanced quality of the recording.  This atmosphere is enhanced by the ten-minute improvisation that follows, which sets the stage for an instrumental performance called "Pesrev" by the ensemble. 

After a very short ney improvisation of a half minute, the centerpiece comes with the performance of a nearly 33-minute rendition of "Ayin-I Sharif," or the "Blessed Ceremony," including the instrumental and vocal ensembles and the whirling dervishes, dressed in white tunics with skirts that flow gracefully during the continuous turning.  Atop their heads are the distinctive conical hats with flat tops that can be discerned on the cover art shown here. 

As the music builds, the slow movement, with the heads of the participants tilted slightly, grows faster and the individual is both in communal and personal ecstatic connections with their faith.  The individuals move counter-clockwise, with the left hand down toward the earth and the right held aloft as the dervishes reflect the desire for communion, in a uplifting of the soul, with Allah but also balance these aspirations with the spiritual connection to the earth.

Again, the listener can hear the buildup of the music and only imagine the corresponding movement of the dervishes, but to witness the growing speed and grace of the combination must have been a striking and affecting experience and one wonders if the half hour seemed much less.

After another short ney improvisation, a recitation of about three minutes duration from the Koran concludes the ceremony.  A final ney piece of over ten minutes rounds out the record, which is a ritual spiritual journey for the Mevlevi, but a journey of wonder for the observer and listener.  The Music of the Whirling Dervishes is an exciting album that shows that music can be a vehicle for spiritual ascendancy but also an ecumenical appreciation that transcends human differences, especially in this era of politicized religious divisiveness.

The Music of the Whirling Dervishes (Atlantic, 1979, CD version 1987)

1.  Naat-I Mevlana    12:36
2.  Ney Taksimi  10:16
3.  Persev  7:32
4.  Ney Taksimi   :33
     Ayin-I Serif, part 1  9:23
5.  Ayin-I Serif, part 2  23:26
     Ney Taksimi  1:36
6.  Kuran-I Kerim  3:19
7.  Ney Taksimi  10:23

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)