PHAROAH SANDERS – Tauhid (LP-1968)

Label: Impulse! – A-9138, ABC Records – AS-9138

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo / Country: US / Released: 1968

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvidation

Recorded At Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 11/15/66.

Design – Robert Flynn

Design [Liner] – Joe Lebow

Photography By – Charles Stewart

Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder

Liner Notes – Nat Hentoff

Producer – Bob Thiele

Matrix / Runout (Side A): AS 9138 A LW

Matrix / Runout (Side B): AS 9138 B LW

Matrix / Runout (Side A + B): VAN GELDER (Stamped)

Note:

A-9138 on sleeve. AS-9138 on labels and runout. Black and red ABC Impulse! labels 1968.

"A Product Of ABC Records, Inc. New York, N.Y. 10019 Made in USA" on bottom perimeter of label.

A  -  Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt ................................................................ 16:30

B1 - Japan .................................................................................................... 3:29

B2 - Aum / Venus / Capricorn Rising ...........................................................14:52

Pharoah Sanders – alto sax, tenor sax, piccolo flute, vocals

Warren "Sonny" Sharrock – guitar

Dave Burrell – piano

Henry Grimes – bass

Roger Blank – drums, percussion

Nat Bettis – percussion

A - Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt

The album opens with a collective meditation. Tympani(?), cymbal smashes, Sharrock's new approach to post-Coltrane ballad guitar, twangy and shuddering, Burrell as chordal colourist - a group - sound - and - feel -, not the soloist as free individual striving to be the lone voice...

A brief Henry Grimes bass solo - again concerned with textures and sounds, with the bass's properties as means of producing sound, with timbre and quality, with woozy arco rather than the melodic, horn-like role of La Faro or Gomez with Bill Evans.

Now Sanders' enters for the first time. His delayed entry could be said to either downplay or enhance the individual leader role I hinted at in the first paragraph: by waiting so long, his entry becomes more expected ("this album is under his name - where is he?"), more hoped for, perhaps - but at the same time the delay is a way of saying "you don't - need - to hear me straightaway - these other guys are important too." Playing piccolo, rather than sax, he vocalises through the instrument while playing, as he does on 'To Be', the flute/piccolo duet with Coltrane on 'Expression'. An 'exotic' and still striking sound, it could have become a novelty effect if Sanders had chosen to over-deploy it, but this and 'To Be' are the only recorded instances, I think. Needless to say, it's effect is a little different to Roland Kirk's use of similar techniques...

Drum ritual, low-toned. Almost nine minutes in, and Grimes is about to solo again - no, instead he locks in and begins to build the famous groove that will underpin the rest of the track (I guess we've reached 'Lower Egypt')... In itself, with the emphasis on rhythm (the players' truly functioning as 'rhythm section' here!), this could be seen as part of the 'back to Africa' movement - although (I speak from a position of relative ignorance), with a simplified, totalizing effect that downplays the complexities of actual African tribal music.

And Pharoah's solo, though brief, has such impact. For reasons of context perhaps: it's the first time he's let rip on sax, indeed, the first time we've heard him play sax at all on the album. Once again, the employment of the delaying/ waiting tactic - "that groove's been going on for - three minutes - now - what the hell is going on?" You're about to find out - Pharoah, first, echoing the groove line, three times playing the riff, then some repeated figure, now a note, first clean, now overblown - then, suddenly, WHAAARGH! WHAAARGH! WHAAARGH! I find it hard to restrain a physical reaction to those overblown whorfs of sound when I hear them. They seem so inevitable, so right - so truly the sound of a man as himself, as one with his instrument, as looking at his true centre, his true self. From the liner notes, his quotes resonate: "I don't really see the horn anymore. I'm trying to see myself. And similarly, as to the sounds I get, it's not that I'm trying to scream on my horn, I'm just trying to put all my feelings into the horn. And when you do that, the ntoes go away[...] Why [do] I want clusters [of notes]? So that I [can] get more feeling, more of me, int oevery note I play. You see, everything you do has to mean something, has to be more than just notes. That's behind everything I do - trying to get more ways of getting feeling out."

The subdued vocals that follow, might be a little underwhelming on their own, but are perhaps a necessary coming down, back to earth, back to the groove, to melody, after that solo...

B1 - Japan

At just over three minutes, this is quite clearly an 'interlude' between the two long tracks. Chugging bells and a stately promenade beat, Grimes mixing things up a little by alternating affirmative on-the-beat plucks with melodic counterpoint that goes in a slightly different direction. Sanders then sings the melody a few times, Grimes takes what I suppose one might call a short solo, then it ends.

B2 – a) - Aum

Pharoah had been here before, participating in Coltrane's 'OM' from 1965 (about which, see 'Circling Om', Simon Weill's superb article, available on the All About Jazz website). Things aren't nearly as terrifying here, though this is probably the freest section of the album. Lick-spit-riddling cymbals and hit-hat keep the sound tight, Grimes' immediately perplexing it with fast free walking, Burrell adds boxy ominous chords, then Sanders comes in, sribbling away on alto while Roger Blank switches to the more forceful toms. Off-mike for a moment, we might suppose Pharoah to be in an eye-closed calisthenics of ecstasy; he roils up and down, his tone vocal and gruff (though not as powerful as on tenor). Sawing, see-sawing up and down in motions that lead to a - strain - for volume and air, at the end, of those long notes held before the next darting rally. Highest in the mix behind the sax are the drums - the recording isn't great (they really should release a new mix of the album), but your ear can just about pick up Sonny Sharrock raging behind the Pharoah. Imagine the sonic experience if this had been better recorded! These guys truly had power behind their sound, it was - frightening - ...

B2 – b) - Venus

Sounds like they suddenly turned Sharrock up in the mix because they thought he was going to solo - as it is, Pharoah comes back in almost immediately, on tenor, but we do get to hear a precious few seconds of that guitar squall. Sanders' tone just - radiates - spirituality - later on, perhaps he traded on that a bit too much (by playing even just melodies he could convince), but here the utter sincerity is captivating, the vitality of being and the living of life in sound. Shakers and cymbals, strummed repeated bass notes and finally piano runs that prefigure Lonnie Liston Smith's harp-like arpeggios on 'Hum-Allah'. One might also note that 'Aum/Venus/Capricorn Rising' has the concision 'Hum-Allah' lacks. The three-part structure focusses things, prevents over-reliance on just one groove, one vibe. Sanders' playing of the melody, and variants on it, are the main focus here; either Sharrock's not playing, or he's just really undermiked - I guess guitar in avant-jazz wasn't really too common at the time; maybe producer Bob Theile just didn't know how to deal with it.

B2 – c) - Capricorn Rising

'Capricorn Rising' seems to be a variation on the melody of 'Venus', no less sublime. It's as if Pharoah taps into this stream of melody which is that of the universe - he takes a little fragment, puts it in barlines, turns it into a melody of its own - self-sufficient, but part of a greater whole. And I guess that's the essence of jazz improvisation too - endless variation, and sometimes that reality can include what we'd term noise, fearsome sounds of overblown shrieks - all part of Pharoah's 'Journey to the One'. Earth-bound for transcendence, Pharoah's playing here acknowleges difficulty and struggle; indeed, it - incorporates - them into lyricism, rather than retreating into the slightly drippy peace-and-love sentiment, as with 'The Creator Has a Masterplan'...

So, where does that love 'Tauhid' as a whole? Well, it shows that, for all their reputations, free jazzers wrote damn good tunes... At a relatively brief 34:20, Tauhid has all the elements which characterised Sanders' astral excursions—explicit spiritual references, vocal chants, a rolling bass ostinato, "exotic" percussion, out-there but lyrical tenor saxophone, and extended vamp-based collective jamming—and crucially, was played by an edgier and more challenging band, including guitarist Sonny Sharrock and pianist Dave Burrell, than was assembled for Karma. The later album was made by a distinctly more blissed-out line-up, lacking Sharrock, in which the comfort-zone pianist Lonnie Liston Smith and vocalist Leon Thomas figured large.

Over the next few years, Lonnie Liston Smith, already worryingly jazz-funkish on Karma, played a key role on Sanders' albums, which became increasingly codified and formulaic. In retrospect, the first cut was indeed the deepest, and for many devotees Tauhid remains Sanders' finest (half) hour.

­_Rewiew By – DAVID GRUNDY

If you find it, buy this album!

THE 360 DEGREE MUSIC EXPERIENCE – In:Sanity (2LP-1976)

Label: Black Saint – BSR 0006/7

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP / Country: Italy / Released: 1976

Style: Contemporary Jazz, Free Jazz

Recorded at Generation Sound Studios in New York City on March 8 & 9, 1976.

Producer By – Giacomo Pellicciotti

Engineer By – Tony May

Photography By – Nina Melis

Cover Art By – Marlo Convertino

Distributor – Northcountry Distributors

A1 - Tradewinds ...................................................................... 6:31

A2 - In:Sanity Suite Part 1: Skull Job ...................................... 6:42

A3 - In:Sanity Suite Part 2: Tm's Top ...................................... 4:25

B  -  In:Sanity Suite Part 3: Complete Operation ................... 18:42

C  -  Open .............................................................................. 21:30

D1 - Full, Deep And Mellow ..................................................... 6:31

D2 - Sahara ............................................................................. 9:15

Beaver Harris — drums, percussion

Dave Burrell — organ, piano, celesta

Azar Lawrence — tenor sax

Keith Marks — flute

Hamiet Bluiett — clarinet, flute, baritone sax

Sunil Garg — sitar

Cecil McBee — bass

Francis Haynes — drums (steel)

Titos Sompa — congas

Steel Ensemble:

Francis Haynes — soprano sax

Roger Sardinha — soprano sax

Coleridge Barbour — alto sax

Alston Jack — tenor sax

Michael Sorzano — tenor sax

Steve Sardinha — bass

Lawrence McCarthy — iron

360 Degree Music Experience: The name of this group says a lot and means that with him, it will be primarily to experiment, and do not impose limits around. And especially not those invited to turn its back on tradition, that on which it was necessary to insist at the time emerged this training, so the idea of inherent struggle to Black Power (then almost always associated with free jazz ) had come to prevail in favor of single cry - anger, revolt - as the only possible aesthetic - no vanguard without a break with the old, it was thought hastily in the public fervent had eventually win free jazz.

On drums, Beaver Harris was first spotted alongside Albert Ayler, as part of a tour set up by the promoter George Wein. At the same poster, black and white, classical musicians and avant-garde: Ayler therefore, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach; but Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz & Gary Burton; or Sarah Vaughan and Willie "The Lion" Smith. Somehow a complete panorama of jazz then, 360 degrees.

A battery, in the 1970s, it was used to hearing in the company of Beaver Harris Archie Shepp. But at the time, Archie Shepp, labeled activist in the sixties, had become the target of former admirers reproaching him for having watered down its message - or at least what they had seen fit to hear behind his game During the previous decade. In the heart of fans of the New Thing, music and politics had eventually merge, sometimes generating debates heavily biased.

What reminds Beaver Harris, and this from the first LP of this self-produced group whose title almost manifesto figure (From Ragtime To No Time) is that free jazz did not emerge from nowhere, and that its pillars were of course able to play "old", and thus to return if necessary - a real guarantee of freedom-won. At Gerard Rouy and Thierry Trombert in Jazz Magazine, Beaver Harris confided: "What is needed is to show young people that the tempo is as important as the vanguard, as important as the off-beat. This ties that said Archie Shepp: Scott Joplin was first avant-garde, as his music seemed strange when you heard it for the first time. This was true for Willie "The Lion" Smith and Duke Ellington. "Later in the same interview, Beaver Harris strikes a strongly worded metaphor:" You can not pick apples or oranges before a seed has been planted and have it left to develop. "This explains that Doc Cheatham and Maxine Sullivan may have been invited by the 360 Degree Music Experience. For indeed, without the first, no Lester Bowie. And in the absence of the second, no Abbey Lincoln.

Originally, the 360 Degree Music Experience was conceived as a cooperative of which were part Dave Burrell, Cecil McBee, Jimmy Garrison, Cameron Brown, Howard Johnson, Hamiet Bluiett, Keith Marks, Bill Willingham and two singular musicians: Francis Haynes (steel drum) and Titos Sompa (congas). One like the other, and the sitar player Sunil Garg, brought unprecedented brilliant colors In:Sanity where the importance of the steel drum is crucial, as rhythmically as melodically speaking. Just listen to "Trademings" to be convinced, beautiful theme signed by Dave Burrell, whose saxophone emerges particularly inspired Azar Lawrence.

In fact, all along, In:Sanity never avoids complex arrangements, nor does would ignore in some long passages free (two whole faces reality), the urgency to play. Because anyway, here, everyone knows decompose rejoice cleverly arranged architectures like coming back - when necessary - to party like original proceedings.

Inaugurating and terminating this double-album, sides A and D are among the most delicately completed free jazz (Beaver Harris was also the Trickles Steve Lacy who possesses these qualities). While the faces B and C, in contrast, are only disproportion to broaden the osmosis between rhythm and harmony, until he dislocated offer wonderfully echoes.

(Text translated from French  -  http://merzbow-derek.tumblr.com/)

If you find it, buy this album!

CLIFFORD THORNTON – Ketchaoua (Actuel – 23 / LP-1969)

Label: BYG Records – 529.323

Series: Actuel – 23

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1969

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded – August 18, 1969 in Paris, France

Composed By, Arranged By – Clifford Thornton

Coordinator [Coordination] – Jacques Bisceglia

Engineer – Claude Jauvert

Executive-Producer – Claude Delcloo

Photography By – Jacques Bisceglia

Producer – Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young

A1 - Ketchaoua ...................................................................... 12:22

         alto saxophone – Arthur Jones

         bass – Beb Guerin

         congas, gong, percussion – Earl Freeman

         cornet, congas – Clifford Thornton

         drums – Sunny Murray

         piano, bells – Dave Burrell

         soprano saxophone – Archie Shepp

         trombone – Grachan Moncur III

A2 - Pan African Festival ....................................................... 7:50

         alto saxophone – Arthur Jones

         bass – Beb Guerin, Earl Freeman

         cornet, congas – Clifford Thornton

         drums – Sunny Murray

         piano – Dave Burrell

         soprano saxophone – Archie Shepp

         trombone – Grachan Moncur III

B1 - Brotherhood .................................................................. 10:43

         alto saxophone – Arthur Jones

         bass – Beb Guerin, Earl Freeman

         cornet – Clifford Thornton

         drums – Claude Delcloo

B2 - Speak With Your Echo (And Call This Dialogue) ........... 9:05

         bass – Beb Guerin, Earl Freeman

         cornet – Clifford Thornton

23rd volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. This album was recorded in Paris on August 18, 1969 by Clifford Thornton (cornet and conga drums) with Grachan Moncur III (trombone), Archie Shepp (soprano saxophone), Arthur Jones (alto saxophone), Dave Burrell (piano), Sunny Murray (drums), Beb Guerin (bass), Earl Freeman (bass) and Claude Delcloo (drums).

"Clifford Thornton was a player and a composer whose obscurity was offset by the high esteem in which he was held by his fellow musicians... like Shepp, Thornton was actively involved in advancing the ideology of the black  movement... and all of his recordings are intense and important about those matters that were close to his heart -- liberation, communication and unity."

_ Byron Coley

Clifford Thornton's only Actuel date as a leader is, like many of the others in this BYG series, an all-star blowing session highly indicative of the times. For some, it will be difficult to tell whether taking credit for composing these pieces is a lost cause. This is some very free music and, save for a handful of scored passages, almost wholly improvised. A number of the scene's top players make appearances here in different groups.

Otherwise, "Brotherhood," a piece for quintet, is performed by Thornton, Jones, Guerin, Freeman, and this time, drummer Claude Delcloo, while on "Speak With Your Echo" only the two bassists (Guerin and Freeman) accompany Thornton's cornet. This piece in particular is especially enjoyable and reminiscent perhaps of Arthur Jones' fantastic ballad, "Brother B," from his own Actuel LP, Scorpio. At times the ensemble pieces sound like a Pan-African Morton Feldman, and at others, hazy, psychedelic post bop. Fans of brooding and contemplative improvised music will find a great deal to enjoy here. In fact, many would argue that this is the best LP under Thornton's leadership...

1969's Ketchaoua leaps through many styles in a way that reminds me of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and also Archie Shepp in this era—Shepp appears on half of the album.  Side A contains two long tracks that feature large ensembles and a lot of simple, interweaving percussion.  Both tracks gradually evolve into brief periods of recognizable jazz styles before floating back into more abstract terrain.  The opening title track might be the least prominent appearance from drummer Sunny Murray, who blends into the massed percussion.  The two tracks on side B are opposite extremes, though both feature smaller groups.  "Brotherhood" draws from New York energy jazz, with Claude Delcloo's percussion prominent in the mix.  "Speak with Your Echo" ends the album with its sparsest arrangement, featuring only Thornton and two bassists.  The recording quality varies, with the large groups sounding better than "Brotherhood", where the explosive percussion reverberates awkwardly in a boxy room. Who cares, it still sounds great.

Yes, definitely raw, awesome, volatile and atmospheric. Brilliant!

If you find it, buy this album!

WILDFLOWERS 3 – The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (Douglas / LP3-1977)

Label: Douglas – NBLP 7047

Series: Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions – 3

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded May 14 thru May 23, 1976 at Studio Rivbea, 24 Bond Street, New York.

Engineer [Assistant] – Les Kahn

Engineer [Chief] – Ron Saint Germain

Engineer [Remote Assistant] – Matt Murray

Executive-producer – Harley I. Lewin

Liner Notes – Ross Firestone

Mastered By – Ray Janos

Photography By – Peter Harron

Producer – Alan Douglas, Michael Cuscuna, Sam Rivers

A1 - Randy Weston – Portrait Of Frank Edward Weston ............................... 8:50

         Bass – Alex Blake

         Congas – Azzedin Weston

         Piano, Written-By – Randy Weston

A2 - Michael Jackson – Clarity ....................................................................... 5:15

         Acoustic Guitar, Written-By – Michael Jackson

         Bass – Fred Hopkins

         Drums – Phillip Wilson

         Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Oliver Lake

A3 - Dave Burrell – Black Robert ................................................................... 6:30

         Bass – Stafford James

         Drums – Harold White

         Piano, Written-By – Dave Burrell

B1 - Abdullah – Blue Phase .......................................................................... 12:37

         Double Bass – Rickie Evans

         Drums – Rashied Sinan

         Electric Bass – Leroy Seals

         Guitar – Mashujaa

         Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Charles Bracken

         Trumpet, Written-By – Ahmed Abdullah

B2 - Andrew Cyrille & Maono – Short Short .................................................. 7:30

         Bass – Lyle Atkinson

         Drums, Written-By – Andrew Cyrille  (Rights Society: ASCAP)

         Tenor Saxophone – David Ware

         Trumpet – Ted Daniel

...The jazz of the 1970s, particularly in New York, was a vital and searching music, just as the best jazz has always been. Musicians like Sam Rivers, David Murray, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the World Saxophone Quartet, Cecil Taylor and many others worked tirelessly, expanding their tonal vocabularies and creating shimmering and brilliant soundscapes for whoever was still listening. The audiences were, indeed, smaller. But the scope of the artistic achievement was as grand as ever.

This is an astonishing document, sonically wide-open to anyone with an ear for music of the spirit. The performances are varied enough, and sequenced in such a manner, that the most palatable, groove-oriented works will draw the listener in that he or she may appreciate the more abstract, experimental works as well. This music’s vitality is timeless; these recordings should be heard by anyone with anything more than a glancing interest in jazz...

If you find it, buy this album!

DAVE BURRELL – After Love (LP-1970)

Label: America Records – 067 867-2

Series: Free America – #07

Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Limited Edition - Released: 2004

Style: Free Jazz

Recording Date: 1970, Paris, France.

Art Direction, Design, Painting – Gilles Guerlet, Jérôme Witz

Photography By [Paintings] – Fredéric Thomas

Producer [For America-musidisc] – Pierre Berjot

Reissue Producer [Prepared For Reissue By] – Bruno Guermonprez

Supervised By [Reissue] – Daniel Richard

Transferred By [Transfers], Mastered By [Mastering] – Alexis Frenkel

Part of the reissue series of recordings from the French America label, this CD cleans up the sound from the original's horrible French pressing c. 1970 and holds up 44 years later as one of the best recordings of the free jazz diasporic period.

01 After Love Part 1 “Questions and Answers” (D. Burrell) . . . 21:42

02 After Love Part 2 “Random” (D. Burrell) . . . 7:03

03 My March (D. Burrell) . . . 22:03

Dave Burrell, leader, piano

Alan Silva, amplified cello, violin

Ron Miller, mandolin, bass (track 1)

Don Moye, drums

Bertrand Gauthier, drums (track 1)

Roscoe Mitchell, reeds

Michel Gladieux, bass (track 3)

When, in 1969, a young journalist named Paul Alessandrini proposed a series of “exspress Portraits” to Jean-Louis Ginibre, Chief Editor of “Jazz Magazine”, to be published under the title “The New Heads of the New Music”, Dave Burrell, aged 29, was probably the most discreet and apparently the most “serious” (no doubt because he wore glasses!) of the eleven musicians chosen. Musically - he’d already produced some phonographic evidence - this pianist was neither the least ‘turbulent’ nor, literally, the least iconoclastic. This was reason enough for him to have been selected among the whole ‘bunch’ of freejazzmen who’d just landed in Paris from New York and Chicago, and who immediately scattered throughout the capital’s studios and jazz clubs (not to mention other spaces, sometimes institutions, which had never heard as much…). A few jazz fans, and also professionals who were novices where ‘new jazz’ was concerned, but were excited by the scent of surprise inherent in this music, undertook the financial risks; after all, wasn’t their aim to sell this music that seemed to turn its back on most of the commercial criteria reigning over the music business? As for Burrell (no relation to guitarist Kenny Burrell, nor the New Orleans pianist Duke Burrell), if his biography remains extremely concise (are lucky musicians those without a story?), at least Alessandrini informed us that he ‘was born on September 10th, 1940 in Middletown, Ohio of parents originating in Mississippi and Louisiana. When he was still a child he lived in a musical atmosphere: his mother played piano and organ, and sang spirituals in a Baptist Church (Note: Baptist religious services were the most propitious in terms of musical paroxysms and collective trance phenomenal. His father, a union man, defended black workers rights. For four years he studied music at Berklee School of Music and at the Boston Conservatory, then for two years at the University of Hawaii.  He lived in the heart of the Black ghetto, in Cleveland and Harlem, while making frequent trips to the ‘paradise’ of Hawaii.  He recorded with Giuseppi Logan, Marion Brown (Juba-Lee, Three for Shepp). Pharoah Sanders (still spelt ‘Pharaoh’ at the time), (Tauhid), then under his own name for Douglas (High). Deeply marked by his recent stay in Algiers, he’s just recorded two compositions conceived over there, under the general title of ‘Echo’: with himself leading, there are Archie Shepp, Grachan Moncur, III , Sunny Murray, etc’ (In ‘Jazz magazine’ No. 171, October 1969). We would later learn that his name was actually Herman Davis Burrell III: that is was his mother who initiated him to jazz: that in Boston he sometimes played with the very young drummer Tony Williams and saxophonist Sam Rivers (two indispensable pioneers who later appeared in the Blue Note catalogue and then alongside Miles Davis); that in 1965, in New York, he’d formed the Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team with Byard Lancaster (reeds), Sirone (bass), and Bobby Kapp (drums); that three years later with Moncur (trombone) and drummer Beaver Harris, he’d created a musical variable-geometry collective, the 360 Degree Music Experience, with the motto: ‘from ragtime to no time at all.” Such a stance of absolute openness is something that would cross the pianist composer’s entire output, from prime percussion to Giaccomo Puccini (he was indeed to tackle a re-reading of some of the great arias from ‘La Vie De Boheme’) with amongst other decisive moments, his sole physical contact with the African continent during the Algiers Pan-African festival. Like other pianist-composers, notably Sun Ra and Jaki Byard , Dave Burrell invented an approach for himself  which might be superficially qualified as ‘plural’, indeed ‘schizophrenic. Classical, traditional here, and unbridled, ‘free’ there… Like a kind of  Dr. Jekyll  & Mr. Hyde.  In fact, here as there (and as in Stevenson’s novel), it’s a question of one and the same being, the same ‘soul’, ensuring the indisputable continuity of this apparent stylistic patchwork. The continuum of which saxophonist Archie Shepp spoke not long ago, that Great Black Music returning to the words of the musicians in Chicago’s A.A.C.M. (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), or again in all the music that exists, in the phrase of the Philadelphian Byard Lancaster, between ‘Sex machine (James brown) and ‘A Love Supreme’ (John Coltrane): such is the profound unity of the Burrell universe with, obviously, a whole range of singularities, ‘distinctive features’ with a juxtaposition and mingling of his taste for classical forms and virtuosities, notably with the piano’s African-American pioneers (ragtime, stride, boogie…), or, as in this ‘After Love’ for a March tempo that’s distended and distorted to anamorphosis and verbal explosions. This reminds us that these were joyous militant years, and that forbidding was still forbidden - even to mix the sounds of an electric cello, or a violin and a mandolin, to associate a multi-blower from Chicago (and The Art Ensemble’ Of…) Roscoe Mitchell, the Art Ensemble’s percussionist (Don Moye), a former partner of Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra (Alan Silva) with young Parisian rhythmicians (Michel Gladieux, who was part of the Dharma quintet, and Bertrand Gauthier, who dropped his sticks in favour of a camera), and therefore to play-enjoy without hindrance. Who mentioned nostalgia? It’s just a moment in history.

_ By Phillippe Carles

If you find it, buy this album!

DAVE BURRELL – High Won - High Two (2LP-1976)

Label: Arista – AL 1906, Freedom – AL 1906

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1976

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz

Recorded in New York City, 6th February 1968 except East Side Colors (9th September 1968)

Art Director – Bob Heimall

Artwork [Cover Art] – Benno Friedman

Design – Nancy Greenberg

Liner Notes – Stanley Crouch

Photography By – Raymond Ross

Producer – Alan Douglas

Producer [Additional Production] – Michael Cuscuna

"High Won-High Two" is the second studio album released by jazz pianist Dave Burrell. It was recorded on February 9, 1968 and was first released as an LP record later that year by Black Lion Records.

A  -  West Side Story (Medley) . . . 19:48

        (Arranged By – D. Burrell, Composed By – L. Bernstein)

B1 - Oozi Oozi . . . 3:11

B2 - Bittersweet Reminiscence . . . 3:45

B3 - Bobby And Si . . . 2:13

B4 - Dave Blue . . . 2:37

B5 - Margie Pargie (A.M. Rag) . . . 3:02

C  -  East Side Colors . . . 15:52

D  -  Theme Stream Medley . . . 15:35

        a. Dave Blue

        b. Bittersweet Reminiscence

        c. Bobby And Si

        d. Margie Pargie (A.M. Rag)

        e. Oozi Oozi

        f. Inside Ouch

DAVE BURRELL – Piano, Composed, Arranger

SIRONE (Norris Jones) – Bass

PHAROAH SANDERS – Tambourine

BOBBY KAPP – Drums (tracks: A to B5, D)

SUNNY MURRAY – Drums (track: C)

Dave Burrell has long been a favorite pianist for his remarkable ability to play across stylistic boundaries in jazz. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1965 with a degree in composition, arranging and performance, Burrell dedicated himself to the pursuit of creative music that combines his dual talents as composer and free jazz improviser, performing alongside artists such as Marion Brown, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and David Murray. Few pianists have so successfully and consistently performed improvised music containing influences ranging from Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington to classical composers such as Puccini—see Burrell's LP, "La Vie de Boheme" (BYG/Get Back Records, 1969) and this a front of you, Leonard Bernstein trio LP "High Won-High Two" (Douglas/Black Lion, 1968 - Arista/Freedom, 1976) with Sirone and Sunny Murray. His predecessor, pianist Jaki Byard was similarly able to seamlessly employ the entire history of jazz in a single solo with Charles Mingus' 1964 sextet...

... Dave Burrell has long had a highly original style on piano, not quite outside but far from conventional. This LP, a trio set with bassist Sirone and either Bobby Kapp or Sonny Murray on drums. Most intriguing is a 19½-minute "West Side Story Medley" that features Burrell playing many of the songs from Leonard Bernstein's work in abstract fashion. There is also the lengthy "East Side Colors," five brief (around three-minutes apiece) versions of five of Burrell's originals and the "Theme Stream Medley" which has reprises of the five songs plus a sixth piece ("Inside Ouch").

_ By Scott Yanow

Extremely good set.

If you find it, buy this album!

GRACHAN MONCUR III – Aco Dei De Madrugada (One Morning I Waked Up Very Early) / New Africa (2LP-1971)

Label: BYG Records – 529.205

Series: Double Actuel – 205

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation; Country: France - Released: 1971

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Side A/B - Recorded In Paris 11. August 1969

Side C/D - Recorded In Paris 04. November 1969

Executive-producer – Claude Delcloo

Producer – Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young

Two seminal sessions from avant soul trombonist Grachan Moncur III. Beautiful recordings.

New Africa (1969)

A1 - New Africa . . . 17:30

        1st Movement: Queen Tamam  

        2nd Movement: New Africa    

        3rd Movement: Black Call       

        4th Movement: Ethiopian Market        

A2 - Space Spy . . . 6:55

B1 - Exploration . . . 10:45

B2 - When . . . 12:00

        Grachan Moncur III – trombone

        Roscoe Mitchell – alto saxophone, saxophone [piccolo]

        Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone (track: B2)

        Dave Burrell – piano

        Alan Silva – contrabass

        Andrew Cyrille – drums, percussion

Aco Dei De Madrugada (One Morning I Waked Up Very Early) - 1969

C1 - Aco Dei De Madrugada (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 7:02

C2 - Ponte Io (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 6:46

D1 - Osmosis . . . 9:25

D2 - Tiny Temper . . . 5:28

        Grachan Moncur III – trombone

        Fernando Martins – piano, vocals

        Beb  Guérin – contrabass

        Nelson Serra De Castro – drums, percussion

 Grachan Moncur III

In 1969 Grachan Moncur III - jazz trombonist and composer - recorded two albums for the legendary French free jazz record label BYG: "New Africa" and "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)".

Moncur had come to France via Algiers, where he had played at the First Pan-African Cultural Festival. This Festival, which focused on Black African ethnic identity politics, had been held in Algeria from the 21st of July to the 1st of August 1969 by the new-fled Organization of African Unity. Moncur had come to the Festival together with Archie Shepp, with whom he had been playing since 1967 (i.a. on 'Life At The Donaueschingen Music Festival' and 'The Way Ahead') and with whom he would remain closely associated in further years (on 'Things Have Got To Change' and 'Kwanza'). Besides Moncur, Shepp brought with him cornet player Clifton Thornton, pianist Dave Burrell, bass player Alan Silva, and avant drummer Sunny Murray.

At the Festival, the whole group was invited to record in Paris by BYG Actuel's Jean Georgakarakos and Jean-Luc Young, and record they did: in a very short time span, working in ever-changing constellations, they created scores of beautiful free jazz records. "New Africa" was recorded on august 11th 1969, only ten days after the end of the Festival; "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)" was recorded only a little later, on september 10th and november 4th 1969.

But the jazz corpus created by those invited to record by BYG Actuel - though one of the most enticing on record - was marred by greed: to this day, BYG's mainmen Bisceglia, Young and Georgakarakos have apparently not paid any royalties to the artists involved. The financial problems this created for Moncur initiated a downward spiral, which was worsened by health problems. The result was that Moncur was able to record only rarely after the early 1970's, apparently became quite depressed, and didn't even merit a personal entry in the 7th (2004) edition of "The Pinguin Guide To Jazz On CD".

It is ironic that where a Festival (the First Pan-African Cultural Festival) provided the main impetus for BYG Records, another festival proved to be it's undoing. BYG Records organized a festival together with the countercultural magazine Actuel called 'Le Festival Actuel'. It was planned to take place from October 24th to 27th 1969 in Paris. However, the French authorities denied the organizers the necessary permits, fearing that either a Woodstock-like chaos or a repetition of the may 1968 student riots might ensue. This forced the organizers to move the entire Festival at a very late stage to Belgium, to a place called Amougies (or Amengijs in Flemish) which is near the French-Belgium border. The Festival had a very ambitious line-up, featuring Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine and Ten Years After. Also, much of BYG Records roster of Free Jazz performers participated; Grachan Moncur III appeared on Saturday night, together with Don Cherry, saxophonist Arthur Jones and pianist Joachim Kurt Kuhn. Frank Zappa was master of ceremonies at the Festival. Though an audience of 15-20,000 attended the Festival, the financial strain it caused was too much of a burden for BYG Records, which finally went bankrupt in the early seventies.

Bisceglia went on to become a Jazz photographer; Jean Georgakarakos founded Celluloid Records; and Jean-Luc Young founded the record label Charly Records in France in 1974 and moved operations to England in 1975. Living up to his reputation for shady deals, Young ran into legal trouble due to copyright infringement in 2000 while still working for Charly Records.

The trombone - Moncur's instrument - has held a particular fascination for me ever since I saw drone metal band Earth perform live, Steve Moore - who has roots in Free Jazz - providing beautiful trombone gravitas to Earth's haunted Americana. But Moncur's trombone playing is light years removed from Moore's drones: his style is firmly rooted in Jazz tradition.

Moncur's music is not Free Jazz of the chaotic and noisy, Merzbow kind; and it is also devoid of the cheap quasi-mystical exoticism which can spoil Indian/Jazz-fusion-type Free Jazz. Notwithstanding the influence of Shepp's ethnopolitical protest music, both albums present a rather lyrical style of Free Jazz, elegant rather than intransigent, poetic rather than acerbic, a mélange rather than a hotchpotch. Moncur comes across as a good-natured progressive who chooses to explore both the heartlands and the borders of the Jazz tradition, rather than as a revolutionary firebrand who aims to scorch the earth of that tradition.

But that does not mean that Moncur's music lacks passion - on the contrary!

'New Africa' features Roscoe Mitchell (alto sax), Dave Burrell (piano), Alan Silva (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums). It opens with the eponymous seventeen-and-a-half minute suite, which consists of four movements. Over the course of these movements, the relaxed, steady bass work by Silva binds together the energetic performances of the other musicians. The drums and the piano on the one hand and the sax and the trombone on the other maneuver around each other in benevolent aerobatic dog-fights. In 'Space Spy' Dave Burrell provides a suspenseful piano tune that gives the track a tense feel appropriate to it's title: that of a Free Jazz afro-futurist espionage thriller. The third track ('Exploration') is the 'Free-est' of all. It is thoroughly informed by Alan Silva's musical style: spiritually ecstatic, with an interplay of instruments that is as writhing as a mass of Cthulhoid tentacles. Archie Shepp appears on the fourth and final track of 'New Africa', where a self-confident (but never swaggering) swing provides the two musicians with a theater stage on which to perform their powerful art.

I'm also very fond of the second part of this double LP, the album "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)". It was recorded after 'Le Festival Actuel'. This album presents two songs which are interpretations of Brazilian traditionals: "Aco Dei De Madrugada" and "Ponte Lo"; and two originals: "Osmosis" and "Tiny Temper". On this recording, Moncur was assisted by French bass player Beb Guérin, Brazilian pianist Fernando Martins and Brazilian drummer Nelson Serra De Castro. More laid-back than 'New Africa', the Latin influence gives his music an immensely graceful swing. - Enjoy!

_ Text: Documents, By Valter

If you find it, buy this album!

ALAN SILVA and THE CELESTRIAL COMMUNICATION ORCHESTRA – Seasons (3LP-1970)

Label: BYG Records – 529.342-43-44
Series: Actuel – 42 / 43 / 44
Format: 3 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: France - Released: 1970
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at Studio 104, Maison de L'O.R.T.F. Paris, December 29, 1970.
Executive-Producer – Jacques Bisceglia, Pierre Lattes
Photography By – Jacques Bisceglia
Producer – Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young
Recorded By – Guy Level
Supervised By – Pierre Lattes

Recorded live (three-LP set) at Studio 104/Maison De L'O.R.T.F., Paris, France on December 29, 1970, remarkable gargantuan effort by bassist and composer Alan Silva, for which the term "masterpiece" is not too far a stretch.
This is a magnificent, rambling, chaotic, lavish, and often meandering spectacle that should be heard in one sitting to be completely appreciated. It is a spectacular presentation, with snippets of melodies (or more precisely, riffs) interspersed among the soloists, who include Silva, Steve Lacy, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Robin Kenyatta, Michel Portal, and Joachim Kühn, to cite the more recognizable names. The results are absolutely thrilling, if not always inspiring, and there are many high points. While individual improvisers are difficult to identify, the level of improvisation remains consistently at the highest levels. It is wild and free, and the listener receptive to free improvisation is likely to be held in rapturous attention. Destined to be a classic of its genre, Seasons offers a full-scale radical bombardment from many perspectives, resulting in a smorgasbord of delights. While listening to so much at once is a challenge, the patient listener willing to put in the effort should be fulfilled and rewarded amply.

_ By STEVEN LOEWY



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