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ep1str0phy
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Posts posted by ep1str0phy
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A long time ago (when I was young and stupid) I would hear an artist who was no longer at the peak of his/her powers and think "this person should just retire and not embarrass themself anymore".
I now realize that playing is what keeps one alive in mind and body. An artist who "retires" usually does so only because they are physically or mentally incapable of playing anymore, and often they pass away not long after. Giving up what you love to do the most would have to be hard and more than a little discouraging to say the least.
That's why I can enjoy a performance by an artist who may no longer be at the "peak of their powers", and frequently you get to hear the old lions roar one more time. Some of these players at 75% of their previous potential still sound better than some of the "young bucks" who may be at full strength chop-wise, but haven't lived enough to have a whole lot to say.
amen.
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How many cats do retire in the usual sense of the world? Right now, I'm thinking about the dozens of ESP artists who've been virtually incommunicado the last few decades (speaking of Henry Grimes--what happened to Tom Price?). And what of Walt Dickerson--still around, but virtually unheard?
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I voted for "Judgment"--I've found it consistently engaging over the years, the sort of devil-may-care, fury-fed pulse-raiser that only comes around once in a discography. A lot of Andrew's Blue Notes are tinged with the fervor of revolution, but "Judgment" has a 'special' sort of feeling to it; maybe it's the vibes/piano/bass/drum combo--the personnel definitely has something to do with it--but there's something preternaturally 'rhythmic' about the whole thing... like watching a space age drum circle gone ballistic. It's a beautiful thing.
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You've heard Walt Dickerson recently?
No, sorry.
Guess I should've qualified that with 'putatively' (and Walt was still playing in a 'freer' mode far later than Bobby generally was, anyhow). -
I don't really like Bobby Hutcherson's albums that much. I guess I don't really like avant garde vibes.
I wouldn't refer to Booby as "avant garde". He's considered to be part of the hard bop style, like most of the Blue Note guys.
Although... he always was a phenomenally effective progressive vibist. I'd argue that Bobby was the post-bop vibist nonpareil among the mainstream 60's crowd, at least in the proper, more challenging contexts (although it may be argued that BH just got lucky with sessionography, it takes skills to comp for "Out to Lunch."). Somewhere in the 80's, though, Bobby's avant tendencies just atrophied (I cite the neo-BN Newton/Williams/Carter/Hutcherson version of "Hat and Beard"), as if the hungry, youthful vigor of the salad days got codified (perfected?) into oblivion. His note choice and sense of color are still remarkably advanced, but I get the sense that Hutcherson has lost a lot of the "abandon" that made his 60's dates--especially his supporting work--so refreshing. Contrast this with Dickerson or Khan Jamal, both of whom are still kickin' it free... I guess it just wasn't Bobby's thing.
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Tonight or possibly tomorrow night... Pharoah Sanders at the Jazz Bakery.
Man, I'm always out of town when this stuff happens! Pharoah is a godsend to the LA concert scene...
I'm going to be seeing Billy Harper at Yoshi's this coming weekend.
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Lady Marmalade
Jelly Roll Morton
Honey Boy Edwards
Sonny Boy Williamson
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Albert King
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I went a little ballistic at SF Amoeba yesterday (and got lucky):
Dizzy Reece: Blues in Trinity (TOCJ)
Gil Evans Orchestra: Blues in Orbit
Johnny Dyani w/John Tchicai & Dudu Pukwana: Witchdoctor's Son
Dwight Trible: Living Water
Billy Harper Quintet: In Europe
David Murray Octet: Ming
and:
Arthur Doyle Plus 4: Alabama Feeling (! CD not LP--but that was still like 1,000 copies, right?)
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Coral Rock is awesome...Mr Sangrey turned me onto that one (along with about 10,000 other things).
Okay, I'll keep pondering the Shorter...in the interim, what are the other "must-own" titles in this series? I have the Waldron/Lacy as well.
Thanks gang.
I've not been disappointed with the four I bought:
Dave Burrell - After love
Clifford Thornton - The panther & the leash
Roswell Rudd - Roswell Rudd (The best!)
Frank Wright - Uhuru Na Umoja
In fact buying these led me on to discover further releases by the same and similar artists including one I have taken a great shine to : Sonny Simmons. Aaah, but that's a different story!
I really, really like "Black Gipsy," but it requires some concession to period tastes (aggressive as all hell, but really fist-pumping... in a '60's' sense). However, I think most would agree that the Art Ensemble of Chicago's "Phase One" is one of the finest in the America series--just blisteringly intense, joyful, compelling... heck, fun... one of the best in the AEC's whole catalogue, I'd argue.
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Tes Esat is majorly heavy, but I agree that conceptually it has almost nothing in common with the Verve date. Still, that Windo-Augustus duo that takes up a chunk of side one is absolutely insane. I think as far as drummers go, he's actually more integral to the 'success' of the record than might be first let on. His sense of rhythmic suspension holds the music wonderfully taut, even as the proceedings seem to be beyond control.
No doubt. What the hell happened to Augustus?
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i like hiseman on that early pete lemer ESP but colosseum were too bluesy for me to really enjoy.
i have some later colosseum stuff which is just sort of lame when they were incorporating moog-ey sounds and stuff but too guitar-wanky for me. not a big fan of "things we like". it's ok. no reason to really hear these guys play this kind of music. others can do it better. i would like to check out that dick heckstall-smith "story ended" album, though...
I, too, am a fan of Hiseman's playing on the Lemer album (surprisingly flexible), but he plays far too metronome-groove on a lot of his stuff. I think it fit in pretty well with Colosseum, but only because that band could never be mistaken for 'jazz'--or even 'fusion'... they were as much an improv/blues-rock outfit as anything that came out of post-swinging 60's England, jazz chops be damned. Conversely, the rhythm section utterly confounds "Things We Like"--and, as a fan of both Jack Bruce and (in certain contexts) JH, it pains me to think that that combo couldn't carry off a frighteningly effective jazz-rock/free album... perhaps Heckstall-Smith and John McLaughlin are just a little too (timbrally, if not intellectually/spiritually) lightweight to 'compete' with an arena-ready drum/bass combo, but a little less metrogroove/rock intensity could've benefited the overall effect (I still enjoy a lot of it, though).
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Alan Shorter 'Tes Esat' (March 11th, 1970 - Paris)
Alan Shorter - Trumpet and flugel
Gary Windo - Tenor
Johnny Dyani - Bass, flute, bamboo flute, piano, bells
Rene Augustus - Drums, bells.
It's pretty way-out, with some manic playing in particular by Windo. Not up to the standards of 'Orgasm' - will post further thoughts which arise later this weekend.
I do enjoy "Orgasm" more (that quote is going to come back to haunt me), if only for the reason that it's a more fully-realized, conceptually "coherent" album. Although "Tes Esat" has a lot in line with the BYG/Actuel school--explosive blowing, long-form composition, very free jazz-based improv--it's thematically and theoretically unintelligible--it just kind of goes. I would argue that "Tes Esat" is as much a 'leader's' album as "Orgasm" is--fully reliant on the idiosyncrasies of the 'top billing.' The difference is, the America session has less psychological nuance--it's practically mania from start to finish. It just grooves on 'daft.' That being said, the band kicks it in; although Shorter's horn is very much the nonentity (it's his spirit that shines), Windo (to quote a fitting description) "goes apeshit," Augustus provides some supple support, and Johnny Dyani is (typically) mind-blowing. I'll say it now and every day hence: Dyani was/is the 'New Thing's answer to Charles Mingus. There. Summary: fun and involving but but often impenetrable.
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Just picked up the Archie Shepp - Black Gipsy. AWESOME! The sound is great as well.
It's a favorite of mine (esp. among the Shepp discography). I 'feel' it a lot more than the majority of his more revolutionary dates (which can come across as overwrought and histrionic). I'd put it above all the BYGs, actually (although I have a soft spot for "Yasmina...").
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A tragic loss--he truly was a light on the improv scene. Many thanks (to somewhere else) for the time he spent here.
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Too bad you weren't driving THIS.....
Ah, cartoon violence.
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Still enjoying Wm Parker's "Raining on the Moon". Been paying more attention to the vocalist, Leena Conquest. Never heard of her other than here. She has an album that eMusic carries and I've been thinking of downloading it.
Leena was great when I saw her with Parker a few years back. Beautiful and powerful voice that was unfortunately teamed with Amira Baraka rants.
The grooves on that Parker album are just so tough the vocals do get a little obtrusive. Again, wonderful voice, great band--but everyone seems a little stifled by the ten minute+ hypno-rants. I love listening to Parker ride on the rhythm, but harmonic stasis/poetry reading is a little tedious after a while.
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How does it compare (quality-wise) to Dusk (which I really liked)?
I will probably pick this up when it gets on yourmusic.
Guy
It's far, far subtler than "Dusk"--and more oblique, I'd say (it reminds me of "Blue Black" at times). Like JSngry said, "beautiful" is the functional term--it's got a lilting, lyrical quality, far less exigent than much of "Dusk" (there isn't that mutch straight-up "barn-burning" here).
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So would it go something like this (off the top of my head)?
Ornette-Bradford-Garrison-Blackwell-Lacy-Rudd-Grimes-Charles?
I've got some family flying in this weekend so I'll try to get the book. I think the lineup may have been a little more "Ornette-centric" (It may have been Moffett on drums, Haden on bass, something like that), but--whatever it was--I was kind of floored when I saw it.
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Alvin, Dave
Doe, John
Cervenka, Exene
Professor Xavier
Mr. Clean
Lol Coxhill
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Dizzy Reese
Dizzy Dean
John Berks Gillespie
Charles Tolliver
Freddie Hubbard
Woody Shaw
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This is listed in some book, although I don't have access to my library (at the moment). I forget the rest of the group, although I'm pretty sure it included Jimmy Garrison (and probably either Bobby Bradford or Charles Moffett on 2nd brass--after Don, of course).
Sounds like you got some really, really good shit. Wanna share?
Honestly, I'm positive this info is in (some) widely circulating book--maybe not a discography--maybe a brief in-text mention. I'd scan the Litweiler book, but (again) I don't have it handy. Unless I was hallucinating again (and this thread started up months ago).
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I'm pretty shocked that no one feels like talking about this one. Then again, this is hardly groundbreaking material--which isn't to say it's bad. Andrew's couple-decade-or-so holding pattern has allowed for a series of personal innovations, the communion of which has culiminated in a wholly original post-bop style (heck, Andrew might qualify as a "sub-genre"). That being said, the essential musical characteristics of what we're hearing on "Time Lines" have been gestating since as far back as the later Blue Note sides. It's become increasingly apparent that the tensile, explosive style of the early BNs was (more or less) a larval stage--very much a product of its time and (the artist's) personal circumstances... which is not to say that the "mature" Hill can't produce urgent, powerful works (I think the Japanese sides are a testament to this)--only that we'll never again hear the same sensibility that characterizes those "classic" 60's albums. I appreciate "Time Lines" as yet another showcase of just what a mature, venerable artist can produce--nothing monumental, but beautiful nonetheless. Leave the blood to the hungry, I'd say... it's nice to hear that the cat has "settled" into a groove.
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And I assume that we lost the Ornette/Steve Lacy double-quartet sides in the Atlantic fire?
Wha?!?
This is listed in some book, although I don't have access to my library (at the moment). I forget the rest of the group, although I'm pretty sure it included Jimmy Garrison (and probably either Bobby Bradford or Charles Moffett on 2nd brass--after Don, of course).
AOTW March 5th-11th
in Album Of The Week
Posted
Yeah, I heard about that one. Crazy thing--they play standards. Bruce is (typically) pretty blustery, take him or leave him--I'd just like to hear him in a context that inhibits the whole Cream riff bag.