ep1str0phy

I like Senne Sing Song; how does Who's Bridge compare to it? Who's Bridge is a fine date, tho I admit I don't listen to it too often. Maybe ICPO suited his whimsy a little better than these smaller contexts?

I have many favorite albums by Kirk, but these are certainly part of that list. Interesting covers too! One of my favorite albums that are pre-Rhasan is We Free Kings, especially with that blazing opener Three For the Festival. Then there's Domino. Wow, so many good albums from him. Much like Booker Ervin, nearly everything he did is good in my book. Two of my favorite tenor players in jazz. Rahsaan's taste in sidemen deserves mention. Charlie Persip kills it on We Free Kings (love how he calls in new choruses on "Three for the Festival"), but the list goes on and on: Elvin Jones, Richard Davis, Jaki Byard, Ron Burton, Leroy Jenkins, Hank Jones, Horace Parlan, Pepper Adams, Jimmy Hopps, Steve Novosel, Roy Haynes, Dick Griffin, J.C. Moses, Hilton Ruiz, Steve Turre...

Garthsj--where were you situated in the 50's?

First--sorry, that was South African Broadcasting Corporation (a lot more sinister, no?), which was instituted in the 1930's and provided the dominant media outlet all throughout the apartheid years (and still today, although there's been some privatization among the airwaves). In reference to what you said, MG, the state apparati working with and along these lines were a large part of what forced people into exile and underground. Of course, new music flourished, but the tastemakers in the state offices weren't really doing much to help. The big change, I think (and as for the period I'm addressing in an unduly broad sense), was after the 1950's when the airwaves were divided into synthetic programming (a coule stations for whites, "special", constructed "tribalistic" programs for the different languages/groups). That's one half of a divide and conquer strategy; the second was escalation in the later 20th century (really bad after Sharpeville and worse still after the student riots in 1976, the nonviolent protests in the 80's...), which resulted in the physical and psychological brutalization of SA jazz musicians at home and abroad. It's a testament, I'd say (anyway), to the strength and resilience of the musicians in those later years that so much music and so many new idioms did get across. (And by certain accounts, the exiles didn't get off easy; there are anecdotes about the government working abroad, and--for example--even some talk about how they drugged up Mongezi Feza right before his double pneumonia. Fucked up, to put it lightly). I'm honestly not hip to Dube, concentrating as I have been on a handful of musicians, but the SA Reggae movement is interesting to me. Again--and this is also why we need more scholars (infinitely more qualified than I am in numerous areas, as at least a couple of us here have listened and have lived it)--nothing to take away from the pre-60's, non-free school, but the Blue Notes's stuff is closer to the immediate experience of those whom I'd probably have access to in the modern improv access. Lord knows we'd do well to have scholarship on marabi, SA soul/R&B, kwela, the Sophiatown jazz scene, and the numerous other examples that inexplicably (save for the resilience of the musicians themselves) flourished in a colonialist environment--but like MG said, it's hard to find the proper information. We do what we can...

There are several indications that "freer" elements had quite a bit of cache in apartheid-era SA, although the larger contingent only followed a post-Coltrane modal vein (i.e., advanced playing but w/a fairly conventional harmonic/textural backdrop). I'd say, however, and many have positied, that SA musicians were generally more receptive to free jazz-level freedoms than most Americans. Anecdotes recount how cats like Chris Ngcukana ("Mra", after which the Pukwana tune is named) were playing something at the caliber of the Americans back in the early 60's, and even in a lot of the most conventional, "smooth" material, it's not unusual to hear the sax go apeshit (a big reason I like this music so much). As far as groups that stayed at home--there was another "Spirits Rejoice" (not Moholo's group) in the SA mid-late century, and there are even several recordings by a group called Abstractions playing in what sounds a lot like a McLaughlin/ECM vein. Stuff like this seems to have been common. Now with exiles--Ntshoko ran on his own for a bit, and I think his contributions to sideman ops (like w/Joe McPhee on The Willisau Concert, with Dyani on Song for Biko and Waldron in a couple of cases) in more progressive areas have been extremely impressive. Lissack was pretty hard, too, and I think (for what it's worth) your earlier review was instrumental toward getting the DMG issue underway (or at least getting the talk boiling). Now for the Colbeck album...

Will do--but most important of all is that we get more people out there working on this subject. Only one of the Blue Notes is left, and many of their major cohorts are dead or inaccessible (like Ronnie Beer--stand-in for Nick Moyake and frequent tenor for the Blue Note side gigs--is living in Spain and--reportedly--not really playing). The Blue Note contingency and South African "struggle culture" music is important both microhistorically (within the context of the country) and macro (instrumental toward defining a major wing of European improvisation). Y'all know this as well/better than I, but it's something that bears repeating...

re: clem--my thesis was nowhere near what I wanted it to be when it got turned in (a computer malfunction killed an entire chapter, forcing me to scrap the entire section on the Blue Notes--always back up your files). Anyhow, the Pukwana/Dyani photo above was frontpaged for a period. I'm trying for a program that may give me some additional avenues of research, so hopefully I can accomplish some cohesive scholarship on the Brotherhood/Blue Notes scene soon (the guys I've talked to have been really encouraging, and completely aware of the dearth of research on these guys, so things are looking positive). As far as I can tell (someone please inform me), only two books have been written specifically about the Blue Note axis of improvisers: a book on Chris McGregor written by Maxine McGregor, and a book on Johnny Dyani, edited by Lars Rasumussen (I haven't read more than excerpts from either, but the Dyani book--alongside some other SA stuff--seems to be available here: http://www.booktrader.dk/books.html)... for an excerpt, again, from the Dyani book, check here: http://www.kultur-im-ghetto.de/Texte/WILSON-Text.pdf (from what I can gather, the book was sectional--so Wilson isn't the sole author). As far as the genres mentioned/recordings: a lot of it has to do with the state of the recording industry in 20th century South Africa, which was, Boer dominated (and in a historically well-documented fashion), astonishingly inconducive to the recording and development of new styles. The governing forces/culture warriors (manifest in the national radio organiation, the SA Brodcasting Company) maintained that no more than colonialist niceties (for the Boers) or syncretic/synthetic tribalistic musics (for the Black Africans) were allowed to filter through the dominant commercial avenues. This meant that both those more radical idioms (for example, free improv or even, I understand, white "new" music) as well as self-constructed, supra-tribal/amalgamated genres were barred and brutalized in the fashion you'd imagine. From what I can gather, the better part of historically resonant SA jazz was recorded in Africa, only that media machinations and uncongenial fiscal options have prevented most of that music from reaching anywhere overseas (much less the fellas back home). Certain albums, though, like the Abdullah Ibrahim stuff that has been reissued on Camden/Kaz, might testify to the fact that there was indeed some sort of guerilla SA recording scene operable in the peak years of unrest. What we tend to hear is the exiles' material, which is altogether tragic (but on a different, parallel wavelength). And there is a genre called "boerpunk"--a sort of socially-conscious SA rock music that flourished among rebellious (predominantly) white youth in the later-20th century--but I'm not sure that too many of us will be able to hear that stuff in our lifetime(s) (for the reasons above). For a good historical account (I have nothing to compare it to, really), I'd recommend Gwen Ansell's Soweto Blues. Also, The World of South African Music: A Reader by Christine Lucia seems to be available online--haven't read it, but will soon. Red--I would love to hear Moholo^(n) live, but stateside trips are nonexistent. Maybe a trip is in order... Mongezi Feza, despite the hushed tones and conspiratorial shadowboxing that seems to surround his death, will always be life to me. Throw on "Tunji's Song" from Live at Willisau or, in a much stranger way, Blue Notes for Mongezi, and you can hear the blood rush. It's beautiful stuff.

JEEZ-US!

I sense that in the Harriott sides, too, which are (IMO) too often panned as distractions (at worst, indulgent experimentalism). I think a lot of it has to do with Harriott the saxophonist, but all those dark corners and acrid grooves aren't that far off from his "jazzier" work. I'm interested in hearing this one, too. For those who have an opinion (which I always thought was an advantage of this thread over its "what are you listening to right now?" counterpart)--what do you think of Harriott's (sparse) sideman appearances (i.e., Black Marigolds)?

Yeah, I almost used a few of those pictures in my thesis. A gimmicky club, no doubt, but the look of "fire" on those young faces is pretty powerful. Allaboutjazz has a nice little hub over here: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=1957

...in quotation marks to account for the semantic nightmare. As contentious as the phrase is, there's little doubt that there is and has been a flourishing South African improvised music scene for decades--even now, after apartheid, when the caprices of nation building "do and don't" provide an environment conducive to the survival of the music (certain parallels exist between the circumstances of the contemporary SA improviser and the indignities our fellas suffer over in the States). One salient commonality: there's little information available over here--even insofar as regards their nominal and effective legends (Kippie Moeketsi, Chris Columbus "Mra" Ngcukana, Nick Moyake... or even the more widely recorded, like Louis Moholo-Moholo)--regarding discographical, biographical (etc.) specifics. It's a sorry state of things, especially because there's a tremendously rich heritage there, and (for the marginally more self-interested) one intertwined with the progress of various improvised/jazz musics abroad. Duke, Don Cherry, Wes Montgomery, Charles Mingus, Evan Parker, Joe McPhee, Keith Tippett, Mal Waldron, John Tchicai, Alan Skidmore, Harry Beckett, Elton Dean, Blue Mitchell, Harold Land, Marc Charig, Nick Evans, Gary Windo, Peter Brotzmann, Frank Wright, Mike Osborne, Billy Hart, Archie Shepp, Radu Malfatti, Kenny Wheeler, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (particularly Lester Bowie), and Miles Davis are just a few of the musicians who have interacted with and, often times, developed from their interactions with SA improvisers (and that list involves acquaintance with members of the Jazz Epistles and Blue Notes alone). We have interested parties on this board--so (having not managed to locate a thread along these lines, tho we should bump one in the event...) recommendations, thoughts, hagiography goes here. To start: the Sheer Sound label, started up by SA entrepreneur Damon Forbes, has long (over a decade) provided a nurturing environment for modern, adventurous creative music. Among the faces on its roster are Pops Mohamed, an associate of Abdullah Ibrahim's (Pops's recent Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is a fine showcase for the contemporary flourishes that are now transforming the mbaqanga and marabi music of yesteryear), and Zim Ngqawana, one of Louis Moholo-Moholo's younger running partners and a master of both SA and American free music traditions. Check it out.

Who the hell has that much disposable income?

Art Taylor Cecil Taylor Sam "The Man" Taylor

Audrey Hepburn George Peppard Mickey Rooney

Matt Chamberlain is on everything.

There's also a brief phone conversation. I first heard the album on CD, and I actually waited the full fifteen + minutes to hear the conversation. It was worth it, in its own way (Case of... was one of my first "bright moments").

If by "something" you're referring to those sounds toward the end, then I'm pretty sure they're there, too. I'm not sure about the connection between 3 Sided Dream... and Mingus Ah Um. I think the Rahsaan album has much more in common with some of his earlier "concept" joints (e.g., "Rahsaan Rahsaan") as a unified thematic and sonic entity--it's only here in "hi-tech" form. For my money, it's probably the most "successful" that these albums (both in terms of "concept" and studio wizardry) got, although with Rahsaan that's sort of a relative term. As with all of his albums, after all, there are a few tracks that stand out among even that whole (Freaks for the Festival, the "electric" version of "Portrait of Those Beautiful Ladies"). Even if I have my preferences, though, the format and sequencing of the album magnify my appreciation manifold--and that was a big part of his genuis, as a doyen of cultural and spiritual unity well before there were armies (the AACM, for example) to fight the fight. All of those albums are special to me.

I think Redman clicked with Eddie Moore, but I need to listen to those sides a bit more. I won't subtract for not coming to "full" terms with Blackwell, because his drumming (to me) requires a level of give-and-take and melodic empathy that few players would feel both comfortable and free with--Blackwell is like a second horn and a drummer all at once. I think Ornette could deal with it, but that's because Ornette was/is both a responsive player as well as, again, the sort of player you have to meet on his own terms. Cherry + Blackwell worked well, too, but Don's approach was something else altogether (timbral/rhythmic versus Ornette's melodicism).

I liked it through the first few listens, but now it's generally boring to me. The Ornette camp (Cherry, Blackwell, Haden) are in fine form, but the additional rhythm players come across as a little too cautious at times. Coltrane's soprano here (and maybe it's just me) sounds fairly cursory, although this is of course an early stage of those talents (and not miles behind the soprano work on My Favorite Things, which I still have trouble getting behind [i like the tenor features on that album, tho]). I think this session has a lot more in common with the early Cherry/Lacy sides than the Ornette Alantic recordings, although it's less successful than either; The Avant-Garde has little of the aggression or just-below-the-surface anarchy of anything that the cast therein assembled could produce (and did produce) in other, similar settings. Nice, but not great.

The AC sides I return to the most often are the "go for broke" affairs--every bit as explosive as the Pharoahs and probably more irreverent/ambitious in the end. I think the jury will remain out w/regard to Alice's technical idiosyncrasies--I'm a fan, but there are some details that veer too much on personal proclivity to debate. Like JS, I think I'm a universal consciousness person (which doesn't mean that transcendence can't grate sometimes, of course).

Ornette-Don-Haden + Higgins or Blackwell The Brotherhood of Breath (whole damn group) Grant G. + Elvin J.

Zusaan Fasteau Garrett & Donald Rafael Garrett (literally) Dolphy & Mingus Abdullah Ibrahim & Basil Mannenberg Coetzee Louis Moholo & Harry Miller

*rim shot*

Steve Allen was Buck Hammer. Lot of folks fell for that one, too...