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Frank Wright


B. Clugston

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  • 1 month later...

Holy fonk — listening to Solos & Duets, Vol.s 1&2 right now. This stuff isn't just intense, it's loud. Wright probably never had to use a microphone ... in his life. I've heard saxophonists play loud, but nothing like this. At times, it verges on bombast, but I think more often than not it avoids it. Overall: very cathartic. This album would probably also work as a natural pesticide, too. Play it, and all the ants/cockroaches will get the hell out. A guaranteed date-ender as well. (You never know, could be a good thing -- "Oh, let me play this album for you that I love ...")

Thanks to certain places in the ephemeral blogus-voidus-goofusphere, one can hear a lot of The Wright Things these days, to which I say: :bwallace: .

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Uhuru Na Umoja is probably my favorite Wright-related session (although the ESP trio grows on me with each listen). Concise, focused, and intense. It's really a Noah Howard album (I was shocked to discover that the final two cuts on Black Ark are actually the same compositions as the first two cuts on Uhuru), but all the musicians are on on that one. Art Taylor, for where he comes from, is really a stunner in a freer context.

Wait a minute. Are you saying that they used the same tracks on both albums or that they recorded different versions of two of the songs??? :huh:

"Ole Negro" (Black Ark) = "Viva La Black" (Space Dimension)

"Mount Fuji" (Black Ark) = "Oriental Mood" (Uhuru)

I'll have to listen to the closing ballad on Black Ark again for comparison, but I believe you. The name escapes me at the moment... so that's three out of four tracks from the Freedom that duplicate tracks on the Americas. Interesting.

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Yeah, thanks for that. Futhermore:

"Queen Anne" (Black Ark) = "Aurora Borealis" (Uhuru)

For posterity's sake, they're different versions of the same compositions (named differently). Almost as confusing as Ayler.

Now, even crazier:

"Being" (Uhuru) = "Prophet John" (Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost Boxed Set, Disc 7--Don Ayler Sextet at Town Hall).

-I don't know if anyone has pointed this out before, but on Uhuru the composition is credited to Noah Howard; on HG, it's credited to Donald Ayler. There was certainly a cross-pollination between the groups--Wright played with Ayler, and Muhammad Ali played in both the Wright and Ayler groups (Muhammad appears w/Albert and the Don Ayler group on the HG boxed set--he was also in one of Ayler's later bands). What I want to know is how the origins of the composition got so (seemingly) mangled. Discographers, start your engines...

Edited by ep1str0phy
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Yeah, thanks for that. Futhermore:

"Queen Anne" (Black Ark) = "Aurora Borealis" (Uhuru)

For posterity's sake, they're different versions of the same compositions (named differently). Almost as confusing as Ayler.

Now, even crazier:

"Being" (Uhuru) = "Prophet John" (Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost Boxed Set, Disc 7--Don Ayler Sextet at Town Hall).

-I don't know if anyone has pointed this out before, but on Uhuru the composition is credited to Noah Howard; on HG, it's credited to Donald Ayler. There was certainly a cross-pollination between the groups--Wright played with Ayler, and Muhammad Ali played in both the Wright and Ayler groups (Muhammad appears w/Albert and the Don Ayler group on the HG boxed set--he was also in one of Ayler's later bands). What I want to know is how the origins of the composition got so (seemingly) mangled. Discographers, start your engines...

Don Ayler later redid "Prophet John" as "The Eastern Song" on the Live in Florence LPs.

http://www.ayler.org/albert/assets/multimedia/eastern.mp3

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I emailed Noah Howard this week and at the end of the email I wrote,"Any chance you might re-release Black Ark or the Berlin Concert??" I got a cryptic reply yesterday saying he was "going to release it in the Spring". Now does "it" refer to Black Ark or The Berlin Concert???? :huh:

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