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Another Spam from Nessa


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Nonaah won Record of the Year award in the Down Beat Critics Poll in 1978. More accurately, 5 recordings tied for the top spot: Akiyoshi/Tabackin Insights, Ornette’s Dancing In Your Head, Dexter’s Homecoming and Sophisticated Giant, and Nonaah. Reviews almost everywhere were more than positive and the recording did very well in the sales dept. The record has a wonderful “underground” reputation today and is one of the recordings for which I am really proud.

BUT, a warning follows.

This is really tough music. If your primary knowledge of Roscoe’s music is Snurdy McGurdy you may be turned off by the power of these pieces. I have been trying to figure out a way to express this and decided the best way is to post a review written by Rafi Zabor in Musician magazine at the time. Here it is.

This is some of the most uncompromising music I have ever heard. On this recording the Art Ensemble’s tallest altoist obsesses himself with repetition and expansion. On one of the several versions of the title tune he plays a festival audience to a standstill with seven or eight minutes of one thorny phrase. There’s something unnerving about it, like a man blowing up the railroads. There is a variety of music and instrumentation on this double set, though half of it is solo saxophone. Beyond mere anger and modernism, this is flesh.

The only quibble I have with the review is the word anger. Back in the day there was an automatic reaction to forcefulness as anger.

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The saxophone quartet (four altos) version of "Nonaah" is one of the great works of the 20th Century -- by any standard, in any musical genre. Tough you could say it is because it certainly is forceful, but it's also exquisitely efficient, not a moment that doesn't count, and it all adds up, climactically. In this it reminds a bit of Stravinsky's Octet (a work I never tire off). And there's much more here (the opening solo "Nonaah"!), some of which will be new to most everyone but Chuck and Roscoe.

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...Reviews almost everywhere were more than positive and the recording did very well in the sales dept. The record has a wonderful “underground” reputation today and is one of the recordings for which I am really proud.

Why did you wait so long to reissue it?

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...Reviews almost everywhere were more than positive and the recording did very well in the sales dept. The record has a wonderful "underground" reputation today and is one of the recordings for which I am really proud.

Why did you wait so long to reissue it?

Issuing stuff is not exactly cheap for an independent label like Chuck's.

Edited by J.A.W.
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...Reviews almost everywhere were more than positive and the recording did very well in the sales dept. The record has a wonderful “underground” reputation today and is one of the recordings for which I am really proud.

Why did you wait so long to reissue it?

As Hans said - money.

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...Reviews almost everywhere were more than positive and the recording did very well in the sales dept. The record has a wonderful “underground” reputation today and is one of the recordings for which I am really proud.

Why did you wait so long to reissue it?

It was originally titled "Basra," and then things... well, you know...

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I had wanted to wait until I had the cds, but unless something has gone wrong they will be here by Wednesday or Thursday.

Interested parties can order directly from me at Nessa Records, PO Box 394, Whitehall, MI 49461 or via PayPal to info@nessarecords.com . The price is $23 post paid in North America – folks living elsewhere should add $4 to cover the extra postage.

Should you be interested in any of my other offerings, including stuff from the Okka Disk catalog, send an email and I will supply lists and prices.

Thanks.

CN

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Nonaah won Record of the Year award in the Down Beat Critics Poll in 1978. More accurately, 5 recordings tied for the top spot: Akiyoshi/Tabackin Insights, Ornette’s Dancing In Your Head, Dexter’s Homecoming and Sophisticated Giant, and Nonaah. Reviews almost everywhere were more than positive and the recording did very well in the sales dept. The record has a wonderful “underground” reputation today and is one of the recordings for which I am really proud.

BUT, a warning follows.

This is really tough music. If your primary knowledge of Roscoe’s music is Snurdy McGurdy you may be turned off by the power of these pieces. I have been trying to figure out a way to express this and decided the best way is to post a review written by Rafi Zabor in Musician magazine at the time. Here it is.

This is some of the most uncompromising music I have ever heard. On this recording the Art Ensemble’s tallest altoist obsesses himself with repetition and expansion. On one of the several versions of the title tune he plays a festival audience to a standstill with seven or eight minutes of one thorny phrase. There’s something unnerving about it, like a man blowing up the railroads. There is a variety of music and instrumentation on this double set, though half of it is solo saxophone. Beyond mere anger and modernism, this is flesh.

The only quibble I have with the review is the word anger. Back in the day there was an automatic reaction to forcefulness as anger.

As a frame of reference...

This sounds like a description of Roscoe's performance of 'Chant' on the Wildflowers set. In the same ballpark?

Because that is a mesmerising piece. No anger heard here.

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This is some of the most uncompromising music I have ever heard. On this recording the Art Ensemble’s tallest altoist obsesses himself with repetition and expansion. On one of the several versions of the title tune he plays a festival audience to a standstill with seven or eight minutes of one thorny phrase. There’s something unnerving about it, like a man blowing up the railroads. There is a variety of music and instrumentation on this double set, though half of it is solo saxophone. Beyond mere anger and modernism, this is flesh.

The only quibble I have with the review is the word anger. Back in the day there was an automatic reaction to forcefulness as anger.

In Zabor's defense, I read his final sentence "Beyond mere anger and modernism, this is flesh," as arguing against the automatic imputation of anger to forcefulness. But I guess that's debatable.

I'm very much looking forward to this augmented reissue.

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This is some of the most uncompromising music I have ever heard. On this recording the Art Ensemble’s tallest altoist obsesses himself with repetition and expansion. On one of the several versions of the title tune he plays a festival audience to a standstill with seven or eight minutes of one thorny phrase. There’s something unnerving about it, like a man blowing up the railroads. There is a variety of music and instrumentation on this double set, though half of it is solo saxophone. Beyond mere anger and modernism, this is flesh.

The only quibble I have with the review is the word anger. Back in the day there was an automatic reaction to forcefulness as anger.

In Zabor's defense, I read his final sentence "Beyond mere anger and modernism, this is flesh," as arguing against the automatic imputation of anger to forcefulness. But I guess that's debatable.

I'm very much looking forward to this augmented reissue.

Not sure why Rafi needs a defense.

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