AACM Thread Sidetrack - The Atons

[JSngry]

Some background - in 1981, I had the blessing (for real) of being able to attend the Underground Jazz Festival in chicago for two nights. The first was the premier (supposedly!) of the Henry threadgill Sextet, the second was a Malachai Favors group with Vandy Harris (or Ari Brown, but I think Vandy Harris) and....I forget who all else, but defintely remeber this amazing singer named, I thought, K'atetta ATon. I mena, a force, a spirit, she was in there, right?

So ever since, I've been asking so often. you ever heard of K'atetta Aton? or Whatever happened to K'Atetta Aton, and nobody knew. And some of the people I've asked, if THEY didn't knew, then...was it real, hearing her?

Well, in wake of all the AACMBuzz, hell, one more time, hit the web, and finally, found her. Only it's not "K'atetta" it's KaT'etta, and she's on this record:

which ok, I apologize for never even hearing rumors about this, but look at the lineup: http://www.popsike.com/INFINITE-SPIRIT-MUSIC-LP-HOLY-GRAIL-RARE-SPIRITUAL-AVANT-AFRO-JAZZ-NO-RESERVE/370553104740.html

Mchaka Uba - Bass
Aye Aton - Percussion
KaT'etta Aton - Vocals
Kahil El Zabar - Vocals, Conga
Ibo - Conga Drums
Light Henry Huff - Sax
Soji Adebayo - Piano

The only other names I immediately recognize are El'Zabar & Huff (and further digging shows that I have Mchaka Uba on a few other records), but this Aye Aton...was he brother or husband to KaT'etta? Or what?

One thing else came to light, which many of you might already know, the Aye Aton/Sun Ra connection: http://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/2013/04/25/sun-ra-aye-aton-space-interiors-and-exteriors-1972/

This once-lost trove of photographs date from 1972, a pivotal year for Sun Ra. Half of the photos in this book are of interior murals made by Ra-colleague and musician Ayé Aton — spectacularly beautiful in their 1970s supersaturated color. From the same period, a cache of never-published photographs taken on location in Oakland for the film Space is the Place, features Ra in full regalia, wearing beautiful Egyptian costumes.

And then this from 2013: http://www.studiomuseum.org/exhibition/ay-aton-space-time-continuum

Ayé A. Aton Space-Time Continuum

In the late 60s and early 70s Ayé A. Aton (b. 1940) painted murals in homes in both Chicago and his home state of Kentucky. A disciple of and frequent collaborator with composer, poet and Afrofuturist pioneer, Sun Ra (1914–1993), Aton created murals combining references to and imagery from ancient Egypt, Christianity and outer space. This collection of over 200 slides documents Aton’s murals through image and sound, providing an intimate glimpse into the domestic lives of an African-American community on the cusp of cultural transformation. Ayé A. Aton: Space-Time Continuum marks Aton’s first solo museum presentation.

So, ok, one question answered, Kat'etta Aton = real person. But still, is she alive? If so, how's she up to? And if not, was she at least around enough to be known at least somewhat outside of the immediate circle?

And of course, another whole new bag of worms - Aye Aton? What was the deal there, with all of that?

and lastly - does anybody have, or at least heard, the Infinite Spirit Music record? At around $1000 a pop, the original is unthinkable, but it looks like Japans all has it http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NUM8CCS/sr=8-1/qid=1426913958/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1426913958&sr=8-1legit or not, I doubt very much, but please forgive me KaT'etta, I still very much remember Malachi pulling his stings so far out it looked like he was going to use his bass to short an arrow while you sang "Resonator For The Creator". If you are still alive, I will send you a check personally.

I'm trying to clear up space in my house, this is not the way to do it. I feel like freakin' Luther Ingram, dammit.

[Dick Bowman]

Aya Aton - aka Robert Underwood I believe.

Recollection of having seen him as part of a weird Sun Ra celebration (group led by Vandy Harris) in Chicago mid/late 1980s (don't have the full details to hand right now - could try to search them out if anyone is particularly interested - remember enjoying the concert).

But I know nothing of Ka'Tetta.

[Chuck Nessa]

Soji Adebayo is still around, I think. He is on Facebook but hasn't posted in a couple years.

[JSngry]

Soji Adebayo is still around, I think. He is on Facebook but hasn't posted in a couple years.

Found this too: http://sojiadebayo.bandcamp.com/

And these:

http://sojiadebayo.webs.com/

[uli]

have heard Soji a couple of times at the velvet playing his praise music with similar groups (Su Ra instead of Avreeayl Ra was on drums most of the times) but don't know anything about the Atons. Soji is a cool dude.you may want to contact him thru either site.

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, that Infinite Spirit Music LP is very rare. It's not really my cuppa, but I can see why people want to hear it.

[johnblitweiler]

I used to own the LP and the book - didn't feel the music very much. Somehow I thought Hanah-Jon Taylor was the saxist, not Light. The book was disappointing in that it had much more of Aye Aton's paintings than of Sun Ra's.

[JSngry]

Ok, I gather taht the record might be a letdown, and the Atons seem to be fringe (or maybe deeply "inner) presences on the local AACM at the time, but the night I heard KaT'etta with Malachai, she was strong, so...how did that work, that she got that gig and nailed it like that and then never heard from again and even today unknown to people? Was that her sole night of glory and I just happened to be there for it? If so, wow.

[Niko]

some more digging:

Aye A. Aton was born as Robert H Underwood in Woodford Kentucky on 29 Jan 1940 . He moved to Baton Rouge at some point (probably before 1989) and (besides the visual arts stuff jsngry linked to above) was still playing there at least until 2010

http://www.jazzmississippi.com/aton.html

KaT'etta is a background singer on at least one more album, Mighty Rhythm by the Mandingo Griot Society

http://www.discogs.com/Mandingo-Griot-Society-Mighty-Rhythm/release/2828430

Apparently, she was living both in Oakland and Long Beach at some points in the 90s, and provided the alternative names Kateeta Sams, Katetta Aton Sams and Ka Tetta Sams

She is mentioned on p. 1002 of this document

https://archive.org/details/journalmayaugofproceed83sanfrich

"Motion that the Board award Letters of Commendation to the following: Marcia Schubert (Supervisor Gonzalez)

[...]

K A T'etta Sams (Supervisor Ward)"

which I tend to read as her being a city employee in San Francisco in August 1988 (but I don't really understand the whole document)

Edited March 22, 2015 by Niko

[JSngry]

I have the first MDS album, but not the second. For years, was turned off by the name and the album cover (the name sounded and the album cover looked like ersatz "world music") until one day I looked at who was actually on the record, did a recantatory "oh shit", and proceeded accordingly. My bad.

Never knew of this second one, though. Gotta look for that, thanks.

Aye Aton in the band here, it is said:

I'm guessing that him KaT'etta were married and then weren't?

Other than returning to to familial roots, returning to Oakland & Mississippi from the Chicago/Ra/AACM worlds seems like some kind of cosmicjusticepath or something, can't really find the words right now. But you know, there are times in life when you run into people, just very everday people on the surface, and next thing you know, you find out that they've been thre and done that before they ended up here and doing this, and it's a reminder that the paths of this music and these people, they are not limited to what occurs in the light, sometimes I think the shadows run even further and deeper. In a way, it's to be hoped for that they do, because otherwise, all you see is all there is to it. That's a lot, but that's finite, and I don't think that these music and its spirits are necessarily finite.

[JSngry]

Got my copy of Infinite Spirit Music yesterday and have been playing it since. I like it very much and totally "get" where it's coming from - a kind of Afro-Centric "community" music that has eyes for nothing more or less than putting out healing energy for those who come into contact with it. You can embrace/dismiss/remain ambiguous about the wisdom and/or efficiency of that philosophy, all I'm saying is that this time, this place (and many others), this is what was going on with a lot of people, playing music to get the community/neighborhood uplifted, small, perhaps, in target, huge as hell in terms of ultimate goal.

Musically, I dig it as an extension/outgrowth of the Kulu Se Mama to Pharaoh to Jean Carne to early/earliest Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (and both Light Henry Huff and Kahil El'Zabar figure prominently here) "Afro-spiritual" continuum, and there are elements of the earliest Weather Report in here that came as an LOL/Happy Surprise.

Today, it seems kind of quaint that a music would be aimed specifically at a small audience, and that its aim would be nothing more than to put out good vibes for that audience. But this was 1980, nobody knew it then, but all that small shit, that stuff that was beautiful within itself and needed to go no further than it went, was about to get blown up (as was the rest of the world) by the unleashed wanton ravinosity of a fed-to-not-stop-eating BIGNESS OF EVERYTHING. Finding a happy, productive, meaningful life outside the system suddenly was about to become ill-advised naive foolishness instead of something to be pursued with hope. Go big and get absorbed or stay small and get eaten...hardly a choice, except in appearance.

The sleeve insert speaks for itself, gig flyers for neighborhood venues promoting love, peace, all that good stuff, poets welcome, Positive Education, all this knowing the audience was likely to be small and local, don't matter, the music will be there to do what it do for those who hear it, all good, Even in Dallas (and in Denton) there would be youth/student-instigated "African Festivals" where you'd find guys with drums and garb and the occasional horn, generally a flute of some kind (and always some dancers), the music would be sincere as hell, but not always well-informed as to the specifics of what was being undertaken, But that was cool, the intent was the thing, and the more people looked into it, the more they figured out, and they proceeded accordingly, and how is that anything BUT good?

This record has that vibe, but with a significantly higher - exponentially higher - level of both awareness and facility, and/but the vibe is the same in nature, and stronger in effect. Maybe you had to be there to get the whole thing, and I'll not claim that I was always and/or deeply there, but there was enough of it that I did see for me to be able to feel the basic "thing" of this music, and appreciate it. And, at a completely personal/individual level, love it.

Unfortunately, KaT'etta does not have many spots on this record, and those she does have only hint at the power I heard out of her that night with Malachi.

However, to counteract that - Light Henry Huff is strong on this record, and I ask any/all of you - is there enough Light Henry Huff on record in this world?

Is there?

[Leeway]

I have that Ethnic Heritage Ensemble album, "Impressions," on Red Records with Huff, Wilkerson, and Kahil El'Zabar. Worth checking out.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Leeway

[JSngry]

I have that Ethnic Heritage Ensemble album, "Impressions," on Red Records with Huff, Wilkerson, and Kahil El'Zabar. Worth checking out.

Yeah, the one before that on Moers, and then the one after that on Leo (with Kalaparusha in place of Huff), pretty much...I'll not say set the bar for that band, but...everything after that (except the recent forays in house remixes and such) was a variation/refinement of what happened on those three records.

And Huff...other than Birth Of A Notion and those two EHE albums, what else is he on besides this Infinite Spirit Music? Such a strong player...

[uli]

from what i know that may be it. this filmaker might have some amazing suff

https://vimeo.com/22684992

here is a song from D, Alexander

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkyGxg-OvgI

[johnblitweiler]

Richard Brown, who played bass in the first 8 Bold Souls, says that Aye Aton has been based in Baton Rouge and will soon move to Kentucky for health reasons. Richard says there's some hope of somehow releasing a recording of an enjoyable concert by Aye and Richard with Vandy Harris, from 30+ years ago.

[uli]

Wlkerson with Dawkins' Boglifier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cRJoDVRZP8

[JSngry]

Ed sounds great...more Ed Wilkerson. It's a good thing..