ep1str0phy

Jackie McLean: Right Now! RIP, Mac.

Heard about this just now. RIP, Jackie. I'll be spinning my Blue Notes tonight.

A striking, mysterious document. At this level ("One Step Beyond," "Evolution"), rankings and comparisons are a little moot--this is a level of quality, consistency, and musicality that is singular among the canon of so-called 'classic' albums. These Blue Note discs are paradigmatic 60's post-bop/avant--the gold standard for modern mainstream music, back before the usual devices got rarefied and 'old.' "Destination Out" is special for me not just because it's well-played, brilliantly composed, and excellently constructed (although it's all those things, I maintain)... there's something dark, almost subversively intellectual about it--somewhere in the area of an Agnes Martin painting--as if the sparse structures and stark, oblique improvisations are merely patterning, a mechanical context for some deeper, bluer emotional core. The whole album is like a cold road to warm, if that makes any sense--and it gets to me in strange ways. This is one session that I will never, ever abandon.

Pass. Sounds like the Abraxas, which ain't legit. From what I understand, it's just four CDs crammed into a box, nothing special and nothing extra. There were rumours of a real ESP box set at some point. ESP has been slowly reissuing its catalogue in better sound, some with extras (though Spiritual Unity is without the bonus track). If it is the four-CD's-crammed-into-a-box thing, then it is certainly not endorsed by the present ESP auspices--Abraxas (etc.) lost all support the minute the Stollman operation started up again. I'd hold off--especially because it looks ridiculously slapdash (I mean, if you can buy all this stuff cheaper in singles, what's the point? A box?). On the Slug's set--just how clean are we talking (w/respect to previous issues)? The 1st Slug's volume was my first Ayler--hardly anything else has the same magic.

The part that knocks me out is Art Davis. Art Davis. Too bad about what happened with the JaPM--that cat got around. I'd really, really like to hear him in this sort of context... the only thing that excites me more is the prospect of a Moffett/Blackwell rhythm team--now that is core.

As long as we're addressing drummers... Rob Tait, the BO (and later Piblokto!) trap man, was a bad, bad mf--the hard-lined groove of Jon Hiseman (through probably not as precise) melded with John Marshall's ecstatic fury. What happened to him?

Dale Hawkins Erskine Hawkins Hawkshaw Hawkins Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce Scarlet Witch Rhett Butler

Good luck with the Pukwana disc. I'd love to buy a copy for myself, but there is no way that seller will be supplying either of you with an actual copy. That is the worst seller feedback rating I think I have ever seen on either Amazon or Ebay. 31% negative, 6% neutral, and many comments that he lists items he does not have in stock. The Fela / Ginger Baker disc is fine, but not one of the first discs you should start with for Fela. Start with any of his 1970's discs from Open & Close through Zombie and enjoy them first. If the Ginger Baker disc is inexpensive grab it. You won't be sorry. Just keep in mind it is not the best Fela by any stretch. I've had a copy of the Pukwana CD for some time now (purchased for a very, very reasonable price at the local Amoeba). Last time I checked, they were selling new copies somewhere on Amazon... I guess they ran out. Sort of afropop/SA jazz--somewhat surprising on the first listen (catchy in the vein of a Clash album, I'd say), but it's become one of my favorites. Pukwana is in my pantheon. I started on Fela with the Fela/Ginger disc--and I wholeheartedly agree. A fine, groovy cut, but hardly the most outstanding date in the FK catalogue... it smacks of fun, but the soul/brutality just ain't the same. My favorite Ginger groove cut is Stratavarious (reissued on the "Do What You Like" twofer, if I'm not mistaken)--heavy, mysterious, noirish afrobeat (and Fela's on it, too). I'm listening to Arthur Doyle's "The Songwriter" for the first time today--just thought someone here might appreciate that.

IIRC, Bradford told me the photo was taken at a rehearsal, not a recording session. Someone should tell Litweiler.

Keb' Mo' Kevin Eubanks James 'Blood' Ulmer

I knew I wasn't crazy--from the Litweiler book (1994 edition, on Da Capo, in case someone is keeping score): June, 1961 New York City Ornette Coleman Octet Bobby Bradford, Don Cherry (tp); Steve Lacy (ss); Ornette Coleman (as); Jimmy Garrison, Art Davis (b); Ed Blackwell, Charles Moffett (d) Unknown Titles Atlantic Unissued Other recording sessions may have taken place in this period; a studio photograph pictures only Coleman, Bradford, Garrison, and Moffett--the "working" Coleman Quartet of June 1961. This session is not listed in Atlantic's files.

To add: (from the Litweiler book) "Bley evidently recorded several nights during the six weeks his quintet with Coleman appeared at the Hillcrest, and reportedly more material from these sets is extant." (beyond the 2 LPs, I assume.) That 1 CD, reissued as "Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet" (or something that effect), will run you an arm and a leg--but it's worth it in its own way, I suppose.

Reminds me of "Ask the Ages" (the Sonny Sharrock album, which--for whatever reason--I failed to remember a day ago)--there are guitars all over the place... to the extent, I'd assert, that the session just wouldn't work as well without the dubbing--and this, without sounding like the commonplace studio Frankenstein. Laswell's layered texture--accomplished, of course, with Sonny's hand(s)--never sounds artificial or grating... it takes a lot to improve on a Moffett/Jones rhythm section, and the cats did it. That is overdubbing at its best.

I'm curious as to whether the tune "Late Into the Night" (on the Ricotti record, which I've never heard) is the same as the Battered Ornaments tune (which would not be far-fetched--Spedding was a member). It's a favorite of mine--sort of Latin-vibed, eerie, Fellini-noirish. On the BO album, Nisar Ahmed Khan plays a taut little Albert Ayler/Sonny Rollins lead-in--very edgy for Britrock.

That's right--he plays bass on "Manhattan Egos," no? He's remarkably effective... wish he'd show that side a little more often.

Another loaded gun (or are they a-dime-a-dozen, nowadays)? It's been getting features in quite a few places (I think the author was on the Daily Show a week or so ago). I've actually been up for this one, if only to know what new spins (if any) someone can divine from this sort of scholarship (and this is Discovery Channel stuff, right?).

Damn. Hip freshman.

--and this, a testament to the idea that tape editing does not necessarily diminish musical quality (which is a latent stigma, no?).

There's a Jumma Santos who has played with Coltrane, Miles, Marion Brown, Larry Young, Julius Hemphill, Roy Ayers, Nina Simone, and (if I'm not mistaken) Jimi Hendrix. Damn.

The Contemporary and Hillcrest sides are a wonder to me--miraculously engaging music, fine compositions, improvisation, (at worst) interesting group dynamics... Seeing as how most proponents of the New Thing first recorded (more or less) fully formed, it's nice to have these gestative albums on tap (alongside the early Cecil Taylors, Aylers, Shepps, etc.). And... it's generally really fun listening. "Tomorrow Is the Question" has just as many would-be standards as any Ornette album, great pianoless 'inside/outside' combo work (notwithstanding some lackadaisical bass playing), and a general air of warmth and lyricism that only (really, only) early Ornette could/can provide. I'm glad we have this stuff--immortal in its own little way.

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).