ep1str0phy

Hell, if Ornette Coleman isn't protest music, I don't know what is (and Albert Ayler, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk...)

Overdubbing is prevalent in more 'progressive' styles, regardless of older invocations (e.g., piano doubling--which, often times, does smack of the anachronistic). But--Laswell productions use overdubbing all the time, and not all of them are overwrought (I cite Sonny Sharrock's "Guitar" as a wonderful use of studio wizardry in modern jazz/improv). Cats like Mingus and, with Prime Time, Ornette Coleman used/use overdubbing often. Even in more linear, 'straight' post-bop contexts (e.g. Billy Harper's "Somalia," which I'm listening to right now), overdubbing may be used as an emotional intensifier without confounding the fundamentally 'free' or 'improvisatory' character of the music. Hell, there's overdubbing on "A Love Supreme".

Billy Harper Quintet (Yoshis) 3-18 -Phenomenal band: Francesca Tanksley (piano--coming off astoundingly well), Clarence Seay (bass), Newman Taylor Baker (drums), Keyon Harrald (trumpet--a young cat in the Hubbard/Shawish mold, although I heard some Charles Tolliver... very, very promising). -The group played "Illumination", "Trying to Make Heaven My Home", "Speak to Me of Love, Speak to Me of Truth", and "Insight". Incidentally, I've heard Harper play that last number some three times already--the group is really mixing up the repertoire, and I'm surprised I came on the 'right' night... Note on "Trying to Make Heaven My Home"--an overwhelming, epic (in the truest sense of the word) performance. I'm glad Harper's still around to play this like this.

DEMON'S DANCE! It's about time... (psyched about the Griffin getting RVG'd, too).

Thinking about it in that context, I can see/hear why you thought that. God, I hope that's not the case.... I'd say the session sounds bittersweet, although it's difficult not to get a little anxious... I'll try my best to extract the omen from these 'autumnal' albums; I'd like to preserve this one from the taint of 'late-period' fetishizing (which often does an injustice to the artist, the album, the aesthetic, etc.). I'm getting the similar vibes, though--more the sounds of a man who can see the road's end, if not having reached it (and, really, we all hope there's more where this came from).

Grachan Moncur II Dewey Redman Ellis Marsalis

What shocks me is that it's already getting deleted (it's only been around for a few years...).

Have you heard it?

Cripes, my neck still hurts from spasming.

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.

amen.

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?

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.

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 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.

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.

Sonny Boy Williamson Bobby "Blue" Bland Albert King

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?)

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.

No doubt. What the hell happened to Augustus?

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).

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.

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...").

A tragic loss--he truly was a light on the improv scene. Many thanks (to somewhere else) for the time he spent here.

Ah, cartoon violence.