ep1str0phy

Jerome Cooper Leroy Jenkins Sirone

And here I thought I was the only person here who grew up with that band...

Things are moving along, folks: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/ap_en_...s_brown_hearing

There's something about Butch Morris--Butch the arranger/conductor, of course, but also Butch the cornetist--that brought out something really special in Frank Lowe. I think it's on their recordings together that I really, truly grapsed what a phenomenal melodist Lowe was. Will be spinning Blue Notes for Mongezi in the near future... Question--and someone here should know (clifford?). What do y'all think about the post-Feza Brotherhood of Breath albums (have only heard a few). I'm really interested in Procession for the presence of Dyani, although Yes Please (high up on the list)--with John Tchicai in a post-Blue Notes BoB configuration--has me interested. I've also heard that Brotherhood will be getting a (CD) reissue on Feb. 26th, for those interested.

Where I've heard him I've enjoyed him (the Ornaments, Bruce, Mike Westerbrook). At its best--like on Harmony Row--his playing was absolutely galvanizing. Fortunately, I haven't slogged through the lame-ish rockabilly/punk preening of his later years, although I'm holding out a pretty weak hope for a reunion with Jack.

Sorta tangential, but LA area vocalist Dwight Trible performs a killer version of "...Freedom" on the album Peace With Every Step (recorded by a local collective known as "Build An Ark"). Trible is somewhat of a post-Leon Thomas player, and his singing is ferocious. No Pharoah, but there's some beautiful, blustery bass clarinet up in that version. Check it out...

Yeah (I have a CD copy, but the print is really small). To those who were there--was the Cecil number arranged as on the album?

Which one's the hockey guy? Then there's Don Cherry + Don Cherry + Don Cherry (free/world/improv pioneer + vocalist + hockey cat).

Don't know if the Mannenberg tracks are the ones you mean or not, but there's a Gallo reissue of the album with the same track times.

(wit reference to chuck and clifford's posts...) A little further on, I'd say that essentially everything he played with his horns-and-strings ensembles was pretty anthemic. "Truth Is Marching In" is like the soundtrack to the revolution.

Yeah--there's an album by the African Jazz Pioneers (Ntemi Piliso) available on that (Camden) label (grainy cover art and all), which leads me to believe that there may be more releases. Unfortunately, I can't find a complete listing anywhere. That Pioneers album is fine, although it may suffer from overproduction and a synthetic sounding rhythm section. Thanks for directing me to the discographical information, although it's too bad that there's no more regular online repository for this information. Something else your discographical info hipped me to--there could be overlap between the Camden/Kaz albums, which leads me to wonder why certain sessions may have been split up (across albums) in the first place. It's confusing as all hell. Also ubu--have you read Gwen Ansell's Soweto Blues (one of the few easily accessible documents on SA Jazz in these parts)? I'm making my way through it now; it has a sort of narrative structure, which makes for dense reading at times. I also feel as if it gives certain aspects of the music short shrift, but that's subjectivity speaking. It's generally extremely erudite and studied (tho why certain interviewees--such as Louis Moholo-Moholo--seem to have been left out/inaccessible is beyond me, granted their import with respect to this music).

Stanley Turrentine: Rough 'N Tumble. That one grooves like a bitch.

Agreed about "Hey Jude", "Ghosts"... I'll go for Dudu Pukwana's "MRA" (of all time? Maybe not, but it sounds anthemic enough). On "Won't Get Fooled Again"--ambivalent feelings for many, apparently. I wouldn't call it the most unlikely anthem of all time, but it's certainly left the bar in the dust in the way of transcending composer intent. I think there's a large enough camp that deals with that one as part of the liberal zeitgeist and, well, the people make the anthem, right?

As far as I can tell, the Camden reissue series is the only readily available outlet for numerous South African recordings of substantial import--including the first Jazz Epistles sides, Abdullah Ibrahim's African output (including the classic Mannenberg, which is only sparsely available elsewhere), and some of the only documentation of the African Jazz Pioneers, Kippie Moeketsi (the so-called "African Charlie Parker"), and several others. Recording quality is generally excellent (the original recordings have been cleaned up a bit), and the historical relevance of these recordings cannot be understated. A drawback, however, is that these recordings are generally jumbled up (the Camden album Jazz in Africa Vol. 1 is actually a combination of pieces of the epochal Jazz in Africa sides--the first South African "bebop"-style recordings--and the initial Jazz Epistles record). Any thoughts on this particular series (I know they've come up before), or perhaps recommendations for alternatives and other albums? I'm listening to Abdullah Ibrahim's Voice of Africa right now, which features (I believe) all of the Mannenberg album. Beautiful playing here, especially by tenorman Basil Coetzee (a bruiser of a player in what might be considered a hard-bop mode, but uniquely South African in that manner that the finest among his peers--I'm thinking Dudu Pukwana--possess) and Ibrahim himself (working "regular", prepared and electric piano here, and unrelentingly powerful on all). A standout side for me is "The Pilgrim"--a lyrical, achingly expressive number that just washes over the most piercing of vamps (one to burrow into you). It's a successful compilation and a testament to the power of this music years after the brutal facts.

Tigger Pooh Piglet

Motorbiking!

Always an insipiration. There may be elements that we won't see and don't understand, but there's no jive. Ornette was and is serious--and a beautiful soul.

Selwyn Lissack Mongezi Feza Kenneth Terroade

Man, I'd love to see those charts.

Can't offer any information, but I'm also a fan of his work. He's got that acidic, piquant tone that I favor among altoists--but there's intellect in that expressivity, and a sure knowledge of groove. It's not groundbreaking music, but it is stirring (in its own way).

I'm also a fan of Live in Zurich, although I haven't dug into the others. Quite moving. She's also excellent on Destiny with Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake, although the more "conventional" free jazz context doesn't quite push my adrenaline like other things... I really enjoy her somewhere between the ultra-minimalism and energy poles--the Braxton quartet split that difference wonderfully.

Herbie Mann Sonny Sharrock Cher

What's the deal with not getting paid, if you don't mind me asking? (I'm not the most astute person when it comes to business machinations).

They produced two albums--both with PB compositions, but the latter w/o Brown (you're familiar?...). I swear by Mantle-Piece (the Ornaments album sans Brown)--nothing against PB, only that that ensemble seemed to understand transparency and groove in the UK jazz-rock vein better than many of their peers. The first BO album (with Pete) is a little too stridently clever to rank with me (Aylerisms and all), but Pete's lyrics were a gift, I find, with an interpreter who didn't milk them for the sentiments behind the obscurities (like Spedding, or even Jack Bruce, who made the subtler elements of PB vaguer, if anything). I'm honestly not that familiar with Hawkwind, but you've piqued my interest.

I wish there were snow in the Bay Area--enough to vindicate the nagging cold and drearier-than-hell weather.