Michael Carvin

[neveronfriday]

Hi,

the other day I tripped over a drummer's solo recording, "Drum Concerto at Dawn" by Michael Carvin. A very cerebral yet at the same time intensely emotional player.

The booklet lists a whole bunch of musicians Carvin played with. Anyone here have some decent recommendations? I'd like to check the guy out in a band setting. Because I have given up indexing my collection, I might actually have some of his recordings, but I don't feel like getting a hernia lifting all my stuff around.

So, I'm looking for recommendations outside of avantgarde/free jazz which, as some quick googlin' uncovered, Carvin has also been involved with.

Thanks!

[bertrand]

Antiquity - an album of duets with Jackie McLean is very interesting (Steeplechase).

Bertrand.

[JohnS]

He's the drummer with Billy Bang's Vietnam band. Recommended.

[Guest akanalog]

he has an ok solo album on steeplechase called "the camel"?-sonny fortune is on board for this one, don't remember the other players though.

i like him on billy gault's "destiny calls" i think it is called, which is on steeplechase. i recommend this album.

an album i don't like but others do is jackie mclean's "new york calling", also on steeplechase.

"antiquity" is cool if you are in the mood.

carvin is also on some lonnie liston smith stuff which some people on this board probably look down on, but, well i can't remember which albums, but he is on some. i like "astral travelling" a lot, but i think he is on percussion and the mysterious david lee is on the kit.

[Spontooneous]

The guy deserves wider recognition.

Another yes for "Antiquity."

He had some solo albums on Muse that weren't bad at all.

A very interesting cat to talk to.

He came to Kansas City and played in a sax-bass-drums trio with Bobby Watson. Wish I had a tape of this. He kicked Bobby into some of the best playing I've ever heard him do.

[DrJ]

Hey, personally I don't think you could find a better showing than the recording TONAL WEIGHTS AND BLUE FIRE, under the leadership of trombonist Frank Lacy and recorded for the Tutu label (I believe a subsidiary of Enja in Germany, but not sure). Carvin is ALL OVER that one, those two guys make a really great combination. The music touches on "out" at times but is fundamentally not avant garde IMHO. This is one of my favorite jazz recordings in the "nobody's ever heard of it" category.

Last I checked this CD was available from Cadence (www.cadencebuilding.com), otherwise quite hard to find.

[rostasi]

Between Me and You on Muse and the Hampton Hawes LP on Freedom

A Little Copenhagen Night Music. Still have a soft spot for Expansions.

First introduction was thru Doug Carn's Infant Eyes (also with Henry Franklin!)

I remember when the radio DJ would say that it was Michael Carvin on the drums,

I'd wonder "Michael who? ...and why is he doing that to his drums!"

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Now playing: Nina Kotova - Cello Concerto: 3. Allegro Con Spirito

[mikeweil]

I have that Mapleshade solo CD - there are several SteepleChase albums with him. Some on BlackJazz, too, one with Henry Franklin, great groove here. Never heard him play badly - very underrated, for sure.

[rostasi]

Some on BlackJazz, too, one with Henry Franklin

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That would be the Infant Eyes I mentioned...

...and yet another "yes" for Antiquity.

He plays everything under the sun (Sun Percussion?) on that one.

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Now playing: Iancu Dumitrescu - Monades (gamma & epsilon)

[mikeweil]

Some on BlackJazz, too, one with Henry Franklin

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That would be the Infant Eyes I mentioned...

He's on Infant Eyes, yes, but the one I'm talking about is Franklin's "The Skipper".

[rostasi]

Some on BlackJazz, too, one with Henry Franklin

←

That would be the Infant Eyes I mentioned...

He's on Infant Eyes, yes, but the one I'm talking about is Franklin's "The Skipper".

←

Oh! The Skipper is a great album. Hafta drag that one out again!

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Now playing: Anthony Braxton - Three To Get Ready

[neveronfriday]

Gee, I didn't think so many people would chime in here. Thanks for all the recommendations. I'll need some time to check all of this out, but I'm looking forward to discovering some new stuff.

I think some of the albums listed above are already too "wild" for me, even if most of you would consider them to be rather "tame", but I'll have a closer listen to all of them.

What fascinated me about the Mapleshade solo-CD were three pieces: Rhythm-A-Ning, One Up, One Down and especially Love Is the Key. The rest was also very good, but those three are really original and show a) an almost uncanny melodic sensitivity (if you know the originals, you might hear what I hear) and a deep emotional involvement in the music. Spiritual involvement is perhaps the better way of phrasing it. Too many it might sound like just another series of drum solos, but to me (listening with a drummer's ear) it is a totally unusual approach by someone who thinks musically and melodically and not (really at all) rhythmically.

Let me try to work in a personal anecdote here to illustrate what I mean:

-= snip =-

I know this concert pianist who was quite known around here for about 10 years or so and whom I had constant fights with. She played everything by the book, her improvisations being perhaps shifted accents, a softer attack or whatever. She abhorred any free improvisation and simply refused (and I mean that) to listen to all this "wild" stuff I was listening to.

When she stopped playing publically and after having tried again and again I once got her to try to improvise one evening (after a couple of glasses of wine), starting from a composition of a Venezoelean composer (I forgot the name). It took her a while to figure out the rhythmic structure which seemed totally alien to her classical senses, but because the composer had only sketched out the body of the piece, there was a lot of room for improvisation. After about an hour of working on this piece, suddenly, from one moment to the next, her own interpretation of things started creeping in and after about 20 minutes of that, she really took off and played some of the most wonderful stuff I had ever heard her play. She started pouring her experiences from living in South America for many years in there (it seemed like she suddenly understood what the guy had intended with the piece), she twisted and turned it upside down, started including ferocious atonal runs, she set up call and response patterns, slowed it down, sped it up, etc., etc., etc. It was absolutely stunning and lasted for nearly an hour without a break of any kind. She was totally lost in whatever she was doing. Still today I'm really sad that I was unable to record any of it. Just a small crummy tape recorder would have been enough.

When she was done, she literally had tears in her eyes. She got up, gave me a kiss and left the room.

She never played like this again, ever.

I can be sure, because it was my mom.

We never talked about it either.

Still today it's almost like a taboo topic.

-= snip =-

Some of the stuff on the Carvin CD reminds me of that evening. I'm sure most people who listen to it don't get it, but the man is pouring his heart out on some of the tunes, literally. Some of it made the small hairs on my arms rise, most of you might just turn it off because you think it is noisy.

I also believe that this might be a one-of-a-kind recording for Carver who, according to the notes, had waited forever to record this stuff. Maybe it was as emotional as I perceive it, maybe I'm just interpreting stuff into what I'm hearing, but hey, that's what music is supposed to do, ain't it?

[rostasi]

Man! That's an incredible story!

Thanks for sharing!

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Now playing: Pierre Boulez - Poésie pour pouvoir

[JohnS]

I don't believe you'll find that any of the recordings quoted above are far out. One or two might be termed adventurous.

[neveronfriday]

I don't believe you'll find that any of the recordings quoted above are far out.  One or two might be termed adventurous.

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I have very sensitive ears.

Sometimes I think I don't even belong on this board.

[couw]

BFTs 6 and 10 have some Carvin on them.

[DrJ]

I don't think TONAL WEIGHTS...will scare you off, at least the majority of the disc.

[nemo7]

i like it

[Guest]

Carvin is the drummer on Pharoah Sanders`upcoming reissue "Elevation".

Strongly recommended.