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AnonymRegistriert seit: 01.01.1970
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1. ALBERT AYLER TRIO – Spiritual Unity *****
2. SUN RA – The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. 1 ****1/2
3. SUN RA – The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. 2 ****1/2
4. ALAN SILVA – Skillfullness ****1/2
5. BOB JAMES – Explosions ****1/2
6. MARZETTE WATTS ENSEMBLE – Marzette & Company ****1/2
7. PATTY WATERS – Sings ****
8. PATTY WATERS – College Tour ****
9. MARION BROWN – Why Not? ****
10. STEVE LACY – The Forest And The Zoo ****--
Highlights von Rolling-Stone.de„The Last Waltz“: So viel Harmonie war nie wieder
Kylie Minogue im Interview: Mit „Golden“ ein Trauma überwinden
Kiefer Sutherland: „Ich liebe Rock’n’Roll – aber ich wollte Geschichten erzählen“
Wie die Beatles mit „I Want To Hold Your Hand“ Amerika eroberten
Amazon Prime Video: Die wichtigsten Neuerscheinungen im November
Neu auf Disney+: Die Film- und Serien-Highlights im November
WerbungKennt jemand die ESP-Alben von Talibam! – vor allem das aktuelle Album „Boogie In The Breeze Blocks“?
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Hey man, why don't we make a tune... just playin' the melody, not play the solos...
AnonymRegistriert seit: 01.01.1970
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atomKennt jemand die ESP-Alben von Talibam! – vor allem das aktuelle Album „Boogie In The Breeze Blocks“?
Ja, das klingt wie der von Frank Zappa verursachte feuchte Traum zweier College-Kids mit einem Schuss Lo-Fi-Naked City. Nicht uncharmant, aber wahrscheinlich überflüssig.
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Wie gut ist eigentlich noch an ESP-Vinyl heranzukommen, vor allem an die Sun Ra-Alben? Habe letzte Woche Spiritual Unity gekauft (ein weiterer glücklicher Fund in der Black Diamond-Jazzkiste…) und interessiere mich für mehr von dem Label.
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You can't fool the flat man!
AnonymRegistriert seit: 01.01.1970
Beiträge: 0
Flatted FifthWie gut ist eigentlich noch an ESP-Vinyl heranzukommen, vor allem an die Sun Ra-Alben? Habe letzte Woche Spiritual Unity gekauft (ein weiterer glücklicher Fund in der Black Diamond-Jazzkiste…) und interessiere mich für mehr von dem Label.
Die Preise schwanken zum Teil stark, aber die meisten Titel sind zumindest in den USA relativ leicht und unter $50.00 zu bekommen. Hängt natürlich davon ab, welche Pressung du suchst, da es bei ESP diverse Labelvarianten gibt und das Erkennen des originals z.T. ähnlich kompliziert ist wie etwa bei Blue Note.
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atomBesonders empfehlenswert sind seine Quartettaufnahmen „Your Prayer“ und die posthum veröffentlichte Liveaufnahme in selber Besetzung vom Moersfestival 1974 titels „Unity“.
Ich muss mich an dieser Stelle verbessern. „Your Prayer“ (übrigens mein drittes Jazz-Album) wurde in Quintett-Besetzung aufgenommen (Tenor/Alt/Trompete, Schlagzeug und Bass) und „Unity“ im Quartett (Tenor/Piano/Bass/Schlagzeug).
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Hey man, why don't we make a tune... just playin' the melody, not play the solos...kenne ja noch lange nicht soviel von ESP wie ich das gern möchte… aber mal ein paar Lieblingsalben:
Marion Brown Quartet
Albert Ayler – Spiritual Unity
Albert Ayler – Prophecy (+ Bells) (dasselbe Trio live!)
Albert Ayler – Spirits Rejoice
Marion Brown – Why Not
Burton Green – Bloom in the Commune
Lowell Davison TrioDie erstmals offiziell veröffentlichten Don Cherry Montmartre-Aufnahmen sind auch fantastisch! (mir fehlt da noch Vol. 1)
Bei Wright, Lowe, Logan, Tyler bin ich mir nicht sicher, ob das Lieblingsalben sind… nicht dass etwas davon schlecht wäre, aber von Tyler z.B. ist das neulich wiederaufgelegte Nessa-Album viel, viel spannender!
Simmons komm ich erst zu…:-)
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #156 – Benny Golson (1929–2024) – 29.10.2024 – 22:00 / #157: Benny Golson & Curtis Fuller – 12.11.2024 – 22:00 / #158 – 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba
AnonymRegistriert seit: 01.01.1970
Beiträge: 0
ESP 1002 [FONT=Arial][COLOR=black]Albert Ayler – Spiritual Unity * * * * *
ESP 1003 [COLOR=black]Pharoah Sanders – Pharaoh Sanders Quintet * * * *
ESP 1004 [COLOR=black]New York Art Quartet * * * * 1/2
ESP 1007 [COLOR=black]The Giuseppi Logan Quartet * * * *
ESP 1010 [COLOR=black]Albert Ayler – Bells * * * * 1/2
ESP 1012 [COLOR=black]Lowell Davidson Trio * * * *
ESP 1015 [COLOR=black]Milford Graves Percussion Ensemble * * * 1/2
ESP 1016 [COLOR=black]Albert Ayler/Don Cherry, and others – New York Eye And Ear Control * * * *
ESP 1024 [COLOR=black]Burton Greene Quartet * * * *
ESP 1023 [COLOR=black]Frank Wright Trio * * * *
ESP 1029 [COLOR=black]Charles Tyler Ensemble * * * 1/2
ESP 1030 [COLOR=black]Sonny Simmons – Staying On The Watch * * * * 1/2
ESP 1031 [COLOR=black]Noah Howard Quartet * * * *
ESP 1032 [COLOR=black]Sunny Murray * * * *
ESP 1043 [COLOR=black]Sonny Simmons – Music From The Spheres * * * *
ESP 1044 [COLOR=black]Marzette Watts And Company * * * * 1/2
ESP 1052 [COLOR=black]James Zitro * * * *
ESP 1053 [COLOR=black]Frank Wright – Your Prayer * * * *
ESP 1064 [COLOR=black]Noah Howard At Judson Hall * * * *
ESP 1091 [COLOR=black]Alan Silva – Skillfulnesses * * * 1/2--
JazzLoft und ESP selbst haben einen kleinen Ausverkauf, CDs ab 6 US$, bei ESP kriegt man einen digitalen Download dazu aber der Versand ist etwas teurer (der Versand ist überhaupt ziemlich teuer…)
Die angebotenen CDs sind nicht ganz die selben!--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #156 – Benny Golson (1929–2024) – 29.10.2024 – 22:00 / #157: Benny Golson & Curtis Fuller – 12.11.2024 – 22:00 / #158 – 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tbaHab vor ein paar Tagen endlich die Sendung von Jazz Loft erhalten… gehört bisher nur etwas:
ESP 1067
HAR YOU Percussion Group – Songs From The Ghetto Youth
A fantastic mix of funky bass, heavy drums, burning horn lines and soulful vocals, this Latin-soul group was the exciting result of the Harlem Youth Act of 1964. Led by master conga player Montego Joe, this ranks as one of the great Latin releases of all-time and has become a highly-sought after classic amongst DJs, dance enthusiasts, and record collectors. Digitally remastered in digipak format, Songs from the Ghetto Youth with the monster tracks „Welcome to the Party,“ „Feed Me Good,“ and „Oua-Train“. As a bonus, there is a track where leader Montego Joe reminisces about the HAR YOU project.
Macht viel Spass, ist aber kaum ein „wichtiges“ Album oder so. Ein Mix aus „spiritual jazz“ und Perkussions-Musik, wie sie z.B. auch Sabu (Palo Congo, Blue Note) gemacht hat.
Als Bonus gibt’s noch ein Interview mit Montego Joe (geführt von Stollman, aber den hört man nicht, MJ fragt ihn aber immer mal wieder nach Namen und so, aber er kriegt nie Antwort, seltsam…)
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #156 – Benny Golson (1929–2024) – 29.10.2024 – 22:00 / #157: Benny Golson & Curtis Fuller – 12.11.2024 – 22:00 / #158 – 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tbaHab vorhin zum ersten Mal [B]Norman Howard / Joe Phillips‘ – Burn Baby Burn gehört – sehr schöne Musik, sehr stimmungsvoll und wie in den ausführlichen (aber höchst befremdlich gelayouteten – es wird nicht klar, von wem was stammt… am Anfang dachte ich von Howard, aber dann wird unvermittelt im nächsten Abschnitt in der 3. Person über Howard geschrieben…) Liner Notes betont wird, ist das ein Beispiel dafür, wie Albert Ayler und seine Musik andere Musiker und Szenen (in diesem Fall die lokale Szene von Cleveland, Ohio) beeinflusst haben.
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #156 – Benny Golson (1929–2024) – 29.10.2024 – 22:00 / #157: Benny Golson & Curtis Fuller – 12.11.2024 – 22:00 / #158 – 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tbaHab mich gestern mal wieder dem Stapel noch un- oder weniggehörter ESP-CDs gewidmet, der hier rumliegt…
Steve Lacys „The Forest and the Zoo“ und das tolle „Zitro“ von James Zitro habe ich hier schon kurz erwähnt gestern.
Karel Velebny – SHG
Könnte wohl zu einem neuen Lieblingsalbum werden! Tolle Mischung aus Hardbop und freieren Momenten! Velebny am Tenor und Jiri Stivin am Alt geben eine sehr gute Mischung, die Rhythmusgruppe bewegt sich souverän zwischen Grooves und freieren Gefilden (Ludek Svabensky, p; Karel Vejvoda, b; Josef Vejvoda, d).Gunter Hampel Group – Music from Europe
Das fand ich viel weniger überzeugend – natürlich auch nicht vergleichbar, da es sich hier um ein Dokument des frühen (na ja, 1966) europäischen Free Jazz handelt – spannend für Momente, aber insgesamt zu wenig schlüssig, um als Album zu funktionieren. Die besten Momente kamen oft von Willem Breuker (Sopran, Alt, Tenor und Baritonsax, sowie Klarinette und Bassklarinette).
Muss ich aber auch bald mal wieder hören.
Allerdings werde ich wohl eher zu „Heartplants“ greifen wenn ich Hampel hören will… dort scheint mir doch etwas mehr Fleisch am Knochen zu sein!--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #156 – Benny Golson (1929–2024) – 29.10.2024 – 22:00 / #157: Benny Golson & Curtis Fuller – 12.11.2024 – 22:00 / #158 – 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tbaHab soeben das hier erhalten… hoffe, dass ESP das überleben wird!
*** For immediate release ***
For more information contact: press@northern-spy.com or 646.801.NSPY
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
Brooklyn, NY“The team that brought back ESP moves on to form new company: Northern-Spy Entertainment”
The staff responsible for resurrecting the iconic record label ESP-Disk’ in recent years — Tom Abbs (General Manager), Douglas McGregor (Chief Financial Officer), Adam Downey (Director of Promotions) and Robert Keefe (Publishing Administrator) — have all resigned their positions and struck out on their own to launch a new partnership, Northern-Spy Entertainment, LLC.
In the team’s last three years at ESP, they oversaw an unprecedented expansion of the label’s activities, with over sixty CD and vinyl releases produced in their tenure, including the first new recordings for the label in 35 years. The business was also expanded to include a distribution company, a retail store and a live music series, which culminated in this summer’s Albert Ayler Festival on Roosevelt Island. Recent articles in Jazz Times and The Wall Street Journal, “ESP-Disk’ – Back in Business” and “The Artists Alone Decide – In a New Era”, hailed the team as bringing the label back to its original 60’s glory and at the same time rectifying years of mismanagement. But underneath this success, a series of longstanding labor disputes got in the way, and after months of failed negotiations the staff made the fateful decision to move on and start their own company.
Beginning right where they left off, the Northern-Spy team aims to position themselves as a major force on the Brooklyn music scene. The new venture will bring forth a 360° approach to music business, offering artists a wide array of production, distribution, promotions, licensing, publishing administration, and booking services. With an aggressive release schedule catering to the independent music scene and its strong industry ties, Northern-Spy is positioned to make waves in the coming months. Like the multitude of artist run-labels that came before it, Northern-Spy is buoyed by the team’s diverse experience on the music scene. Abbs is an accomplished recording artist with records out on Delmark, AUM Fidelity, 482 Music and even ESP, and has run a non-for-profit arts organization in New York for the last decade. McGregor is an accomplished guitarist, vocalist and recording engineer who runs his own studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Downey is a working DJ and bassist on the Brooklyn scene and Keefe is a sought after DJ, a film buff and writer.
The label’s first artist signings include Colin Langenus from USAISAMONSTER, Arrington de Dionyso from Old Time Relijun, and the Italian fire-music team, Jooklo Duo. Releases will be in stores Tuesday, November 16th.
Visit our website at:
Northern-Spy Entertainment, LLC
Tom Abbs
PresidentDouglas McGregor
Director of Accounting, Distribution Manager, Senior Audio EngineerAdam Downey
Marketing Director, Head of A & RRobert Keefe
Licensing & Publishing Manager, Public Relations DirectorNorthern-Spy Main Office
39 Hawthorne Street
Brooklyn, NY 11225
Phone: 646.801.NSPY
Fax: 866.374.NSPYSpy Studios
397 Oliverea Road
Big Indian, NY 12410
646.580.2227For interviews, photos, sound samples or other inquiries please contact: press@northern-spy.com or 646.801.NSPY
*** For immediate release ***--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #156 – Benny Golson (1929–2024) – 29.10.2024 – 22:00 / #157: Benny Golson & Curtis Fuller – 12.11.2024 – 22:00 / #158 – 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tbaDownbeat Reviews (Vol. 32, No. 15, July 15, 1965, pp. 29-31) – von Kenny Dorham und Billl Matthieu
TWO VIEWS OF THREE OUTER VIEWS
Albert Ay1er
SPIRITUAL UNITY—ESP Disk 1002: Ghosts: First Variation; The Wizard; Spirits; Ghosts: Second Variation.
Personnel: Ayler, tenor saxophone; Gary Peacock, bass; Sonny Murray, drums.Rating: no stars
Byron Allen
BYRON ALLEN TRIO—ESP Disk 1005: Time Is Past; Three Steps in the Right Direction; Decision for the Cole-Man; Today’s Blues Tomorrow.
Personnel: Allen, alto saxophone; Maceo Gilchrist, bass; Ted Robinson, drums.Rating: *
Giuseppi Logan
THE GIUSEPPI LOGAN QUARTET—ESP Disk 1007: Tabla Suite; Dance of Satan; Dialogue; Taneous; Bleecker Partita.
Personnel: Logan, tenor and alto saxophones, Pakistani oboe; Don Pullen, piano; Eddie Gomez, bass; Milford Graves, drums.Rating: no stars
It’s clear to me that Ayler is from the avant-garde institution. But there is good and bad avant-garde.
From the beginning, Ghosts: First Variations is satirical comedy. In order to make this more successful, it seems he would apply the “fog horn” sound in a fuller context, at least making it parallel with itself. This track sounds as if it is an attempt at putting the listener on.
After the first chorus, Ayler does something—I don’t know quite what he is trying to do—but it sounds kind of like a baby crying for candy with a whining ball in its mouth—wanting to play music and not wanting to, while holding a musical instrument.
After a bewildering solo by Peacock—who I didn’t know had such want-to-get-away-from-it-all, high-minded, uninhibited aspirations—Ayler returns, this time turning the clock back (counterclockwise)—all the way back—to folk-country, Ozark, real 1920s Texas hillbilly musical gyrations. Then they go back to the melody and fade out. If the townspeople hear this, I’m sure that when the second variation of Ghosts is played, there will certainly be a ghost town. No one left but. . . .
The Wizard is angry tonight, and from all indications he has the rest of the group boxed in. He and Gary. I wonder what the drummer would do with some precisioned sound, like a melodic instrument in hand. I like Murray best of all, but I also like Peacock for being a diehard.
There are a lot of unexplored territories in music (at the moment, that is) without going into areas that leave us earth people so far behind, or far away, or without leaving us so far “in.” It must be awful to study for years to get away from the gravitational pull of inhibitedness to find there is nothing at the heights to which thou hast extended thyself.
Ayler seems to have a nice full tone on Spirits, but it’s hard to tell. Is he playing with a mouthpiece? I heard Roland Kirk play without a reed and get sounds like this, but he had a conception of melody and chords. I don’t have the spirit to listen to more of this one.
I’ve heard Peacock play “conventional,” so I know he can play more to my liking and that he knows chords, cycles, etc. A gig is a gig? If this thing isn’t quarantined, we’ll all be in the garment center pushing wagons.
Ghosts: Second Variation is about the same as Variation No. 1. Ayler is really stretching out here, and I’m convinced he doesn’t know or care anything about conventional music.
A baby can do this if it can produce the air for the sound. A baby is free. Ayler is free. Free as a bird. Ayler is free of everything except melody and Father Time (the march of time itself—clock and cadence). He sounds like a very frustrated person. He is also playing a very controversial music. At this point it’s not worth the paper it takes to review it. Too far out. He passed the moon and the stars.
The Allen record is a little better.
The bass does string and bow calisthenics on Time, so I don’t suppose he was tuning up. Allen enters, playing a horizontal line that has nothing to do with chords or anything being played by the others except an occasional cadence. If these guys are going to play in time, then they should play some chords. This would at least form a design, but this is drama beyond conventional description.
Bass calisthenics and then drum calisthenics. But at least the drummer plays some good rolls. Then the alto comes back, and they’re really trying to get something going. Whew! This track is trying.
On Three Steps, Allen comes closer to playing something than Ayler does. Allen’s tone is kind of “mousy,” but he doesn’t squeak. Robinson sounds all right on drums.
Gilchrist stretches out on Steps, but he doesn’t seem to know where he’s going—or does he? I can’t hear where he’s making any steps in a musical direction. I wonder if he ever heard of Ray Brown or Oscar Pettiford? Or even the more recent “spare bass” style exemplified by Scott LaFaro, Richard Davis, Charlie Mingus, Steve Swallow, and Ronnie Boykins, to name a few. After these spare bass players put you on, they play extraordinary combinations of “in” and “out” stuff; however, their put-on (I may be exaggerating a bit) is mathematical (precisioned) because it’s right in some chord (it sounds such).
Cole-Man begins with a bombardment of synchronized rhythm section and horn ensemble before the three men battle it out. I like to hear some point of rest, unless the idea is to leave one hanging in suspense near the cliff’s edge. Allen almost gets going here, but this music is ugly. There is enough of that in the world, even for those who seek perfection.
Robinson really pushes to make Blues go, but the bassist pushes a lot of strange buttons. Allen, however, plays some nice folk hollers. This is the best track, but the album as a whole passed this earth person and most of the stars.
The Logan album is the worst of the lot.
Taneous begins with a free-for-all conglomeration of noise, sounds, and tempos, with the drummer playing a synchronized cadence. I suppose this is an alto being blown into or blown around. A good grip on the instrument might have enhanced the aim. Piano follows the alto with a futile attempt to get some jazz going. Nothing happens. The bass follows with seemingly no idea of what to express; then the piano joins, in the same context. Finally Logan enters riding oboe, I think. The drummer does a few gymnastics, and they all join in for a free-for-all outgoing.
Pianist Pullen plays the introduction to Bleecker, laying a nice carpet for Logan’s rendezvous with Satan on the oboe. The oboist doesn’t like much that’s conventional, and when he does, he reminds me of Jackie McLean on a freedom excursion. In other words, Logan is not original when “in.” When “out,” it’s out for the sake of being out.
Contrasted with Logan’s oboe, Pullen’s piano solo is unusually pleasant, while drummer Graves keeps something going on, seemingly mostly for the sake of filling in. But when Pullen plays some block chords, Graves plays a nice roll on his hi-hat, which makes for a professional bow-out.
There is an ensemble goulash and then accompaniment for Logan, who bows out gracefully with all participating harmoniously. Quite a relief. The title is quite appropriate, assuming this is a party on Bleecker St. in New York’s Greenwich Village. An “out” orgy.
Tabla Suite and Dance of Satan begin with oboe (?) and bass up front, with Graves playing sticks across the bass’ strings. The pianist seems to be cleaning off his instrument’s strings at this point. Rhythm is being played on the body of the bass, while Graves plays on the strings, seemingly below the bass’ bridge. Logan enters on oboe (?); piano enters playing in 7/4 with Logan, but it doesn’t stick to a set rhythmic pattern—seems to overlap. Smoke-screen 7/4 (can’t exactly tell what it is).
A musical instrument didn’t necessarily have to be used for this music, because such an instrument is a precision instrument constructed for a definite purpose. As very little is definite here, a bamboo cane, water hose, or a rubber ball with a hole in it would have sufficed. Then one could place all this in a category of its own—not jazz, not miscellaneous jazz, but something like miscellaneous (musical) vibrations.
Dialogue is basically a four-part, go-for-yourself thing. The pianist is very agile and flexible, however.
For some unknown reason, I could take Logan under specific conditions. But he better get out of that smoke-filled room, walk out on Bleecker St., and catch some air.(K.D. )
Kenny Dorham.Albert Ay1er
SPIRITUAL UNITY—ESP Disk 1002: Ghosts: First Variation; The Wizard; Spirits; Ghosts: Second Variation.
Personnel: Ayler, tenor saxophone; Gary Peacock, bass; Sonny Murray, drums.Rating: see below
Byron Allen
BYRON ALLEN TRIO—ESP Disk 1005: Time Is Past; Three Steps in the Right Direction; Decision for the Cole-Man; Today’s Blues Tomorrow.
Personnel: Allen, alto saxophone; Maceo Gilchrist, bass; Ted Robinson, drums.Rating: see below
Giuseppi Logan
THE GIUSEPPI LOGAN QUARTET—ESP Disk 1007: Tabla Suite; Dance of Satan; Dialogue; Taneous; Bleecker Partita.
Personnel: Logan, tenor and alto saxophones, Pakistani oboe; Don Pullen, piano; Eddie Gomez, bass; Milford Graves, drums.Rating: see below
These three records are best heard as a document from the center of contemporary jazz, not as finished, definitive performances. The music, however, is not merely experimental. It is fundamental to the lives of the many men making it. The ability to form rounded judgments of the music seems less appropriate than the ability to suspend that judgment willingly. The focus must be on the aperture of one’s ear. Criticism of the usual sort (especially ratings) would be a burden all around.
The records sat around my house for a long time before I would let them get to me. And yet my immersion in making similar music is what sustains my days. How could these records be so close, so valuable to me, yet seem so unlistenable, so unattainable?
Let us begin with what is clearest. There are moments in this music when something happens so strongly together that there is a flash of brilliance and a lingering radiation. The best musicians get it brightest, oftenest. But all groups get it sooner or later; it is a condition of playing this music.
It also is clear that there are painful passages of alienation, note-swept, dry. The music bubbles like black broth and is just as repellent, just as empty of music. How can these extremes be possible? What is happening to allow them?
The primary thing is this: many men are suddenly laboring very hard to find a new language that will express a new grace within the human condition. It is the labor that strikes us most. The lack of clarity of the language defines only the certainty of the toil.
When one senses that toil, one also senses those celebratory passages in which the work carries its own weight and the men ride it like hussars. But it is the toil, the necessity to toil, that comes first, and only after that can the music, sometimes, flow.
Now, are we to buy records just to listen to sweat? There is no answer except: here are the records at the listener’s disposal.
It is not remarkable that so many men want to labor together so fiercely. (There are dozens in New York, dozens elsewhere, many of whom sound much the same.) It would be remarkable if any of these records sold over 2,000 copies. Society does not want to share in this particular act of labor. The work is too unproductive, in the understood sense, too liable to error, too hard. Society will wait till the work straightens itself out and then maybe take a peek. Meanwhile, society will water the lawn, perhaps the best thing to be done. Certainly critics aren’t going to help matters by clearing away underbrush impeding the progress of short men.
The following remarks are written, then, as a musician, not as a critic. They are opinionated and intuitive; they spring from varied and contradictory tastes; and they have, I am confident, no corroborative rationale.
In the music of the Allen trio there is an evenness, not the usual intensity. The pieces generally begin and end well but often run into serious trouble along the way. No listener, however, could doubt that feelings pass between these men like circles pass through circles on water. One is present at the unfolding of the language.
The worst difficulties are textural. As in much of the new jazz, the textures are little more than textures (like the feel of a fabric, not its detailed construction). As such, they have only coloristic interest. When the textural phrases are shorter, the music becomes more interesting. Contemporary classical music learned this lesson the hard way, too, but a while back.
And formal problems: the solos seem out of place and too long sometimes—I mean especially the drum solo in Blues and the bass solo in Cole-man.
There are constantly recurring stylistic oddities. In the midst of so much melodic freedom, the rhythmic and metric rigidity is boring. This is similar to the texture problem.
Gilchrist is an inventive and dramatic bassist (lots of plot). He sustains without complexity—a rare talent.
Robinson is a good group player, but I don’t find his work outstanding.
Allen is more openly indebted to the mainstream from Charlie Parker than are most avant-garde players. There is the desire to go beyond, but no tangible rebellion against, the old school. His boppish licks sound good, in a way; they are an affirmation of the old in the midst of the search.
On the whole, this music is not far out. At its best, it sounds quite natural, wholly at one with its makers, unaffected, unmannered—a direct song, like all good music. It is not of the highest inspiration, but it is strongly felt music.
One must be careful not to expect thunderbolts. The new jazz is far enough along so that capable players can make coherent nontonal music at will. Anybody can do it who wants to, in fact. It takes no super-feeling, no super-talent, no super-training—just immersion and belief. I feel that there are hundreds of musicians who could have recorded Three Steps, although this may not be so.
Again, this is not a record of rare moments, but of everyday life-activity in which rare moments, naturally, occur.
The Logan disc has some of the best new jazz (from Pullen) and possibly some of the worst (from Logan).
Tabla begins with a texture dominated by the piano strings being plucked and stroked. This accompanies Logan’s laboring, wheezing oboe. The textures that this group has found are even less detailed, more coloristic than those of Byron Allen. The result is more hypnotic than musical and does not want repeated hearings. I ask more detail, more note choice, more thought. Some sections—the end of Taneous, for example—require different ears. There is a kind of LSD delight in the play of sound for its own sake. But music is more than that.
The prearranged material is bad enough to offend, in some cases revealing a simplistic and uncomprehending musicality. For instance, the return to E minor, in Bleecker, is simply not the way to organize this music. The cliched use of triads, modality, regular rhythms, endless melodic repetitions result here in a distortion of these conventional materials. This sense of willful distortion is at times so strong—as at the end of Dialogue—that one wonders what bizarre put-down is this of what by whom? If the music attempts this discomfort, it succeeds. Even if taken as exorcism—as in Satan—I wonder if Logan means to purge or enrage me. Perhaps these are the same? And maybe, too, I would feel less assaulted if Logan were a more accomplished player.
It is true, though, that one hears Logan’s overcoming of seemingly impossible obstacles. And one never questions his reality.
Pullen plays an exciting solo in Dialogue. His work is very rangey, very notey, yet he goes far beyond mere contour into an enormous hive full of life. He is not consistent enough, however, to lift Bleecker out of the pit.
Gomez has a terrific high sound. It’s hard to believe he isn’t playing a smaller instrument (he isn’t). He is a sensitive player, a good soloist.
Graves, a good drummer, does not shine here.
The Logan quartet is best in uncharted seas, and even there it succumbs sometimes to a rambling search just below the mark of musical survival.
Ayler’s music, like Logan’s, also contains distortion, but it is not a perverse force. And it is slightly wry, and slightly like Eric Dolphy’s saying, “Can you touch the beauty in this ugliness?”
Ayler makes a great wobbling noise. Notes disappear into wide, irregular ribbons, fragmented, prismatic, wind-blown, undetermined, and filled with fury. Though the fury is frightening, dangerous, it achieves absolute certainty through being, musically, absolutely contained.
Ayler seemingly rarely hears one note at a time—as if it were useless ever to consider the particles of a thing. He seems to want to scan all notes at all times and in this way speak to an expanded consciousness. And the consistency in this outpouring is a reference point from which his music takes shape.
The second variation of Ghosts contains a solo that has no counterpart in intensity except maybe in the best of Archie Shepp.
Murray is in evidence mostly through the very fast common pulse he lays down for everyone.
Peacock is of the finest, consistently creative; on Spirits he plays a wonderful solo.
All of Spirits is well shaped; in fact, it is the best musical experience to be found among these three records. In it the organization goes beyond the momentary detail. And Ayler sounds like torture here, but self-torture, an often desirable, or at least necessary, thing. Somehow he has us share it.
Ayler’s music, as well as most avant-garde music, is, at best, difficult to listen to. It is nevertheless a very direct statement, the physical manifestation of a spiritual or mystical ritual. Its logic is the logic of human flesh in the sphere of the spirit. Could it be that ritual is more accessable to some listeners than it is to others?
To those of us who think our brains are the center of the universe, this music will appear formless and antirational. The avant-garde is, in fact, rebelliously and stubbornly antibrain. When that repugnance of the brain goes away, the music will broaden.
Meanwhile, the musician asks: These men—are they real? Answer: Yes.(B.M)
Bill Mathieu--
"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #156 – Benny Golson (1929–2024) – 29.10.2024 – 22:00 / #157: Benny Golson & Curtis Fuller – 12.11.2024 – 22:00 / #158 – 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tbaFaszinierend, dass nach so viele Jahrzehnten zu lesen und zu spüren, wie diese Musiker mit solcher Musik überhaupt nicht klarkamen, wie verstört und irritiert sie waren, dass diese Musik sich nicht keinen bekannten Strukturen unterordnen ließ. Manchmal hat man den Eindruck, sie hätten einfach lieber geschrieben: „Ahhhh, fuck this shit!“.
Ayler’s music, as well as most avant-garde music, is, at best, difficult to listen to. It is nevertheless a very direct statement, the physical manifestation of a spiritual or mystical ritual. Its logic is the logic of human flesh in the sphere of the spirit. Could it be that ritual is more accessable to some listeners than it is to others?
To those of us who think our brains are the center of the universe, this music will appear formless and antirational.
[…]
Meanwhile, the musician asks: These men—are they real? Answer: Yes.Irgendwie spürt Mathieu dann doch, dass da etwas ist und er spürt sogar, was es ist, aber ist nicht gewillt, es zu akzeptieren.
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Ohne Musik ist alles Leben ein Irrtum.
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