JULIUS HEMPHILL – 'Coon Bid'ness (LP-1975)

Label: Arista ‎– AL 1012, Freedom ‎– AL 1012

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Side A - Recorded on January 29,1975 at C.I. Studios, New York City.

Side B - Recorded in February 1972 at Archway Studios, St. Louis, Missouri.

Art Direction – Bob Heimall

Artwork [Cover Art] – Bill Hoffman

Engineer – Elvin Campbell (tracks: A1 to A4), Oliver Sain (track: B)

Liner Notes – Michael Cuscuna

Liner Notes [Poem On Sleeve] – Julius Hemphill, Wilma Moses

Photography By – Ron Warwell

Producer – Julius Hemphill (track: B), Michael Cuscuna (tracks: A1 to A4)

A1 - Reflections .......................................................................... 2:30

A2 - Lyric .................................................................................... 7:24

A3 - Skin 1 ................................................................................ 10:07

A4 - Skin 2 .................................................................................. 2:28

Julius Hemphill  /  alto saxophone

'Black' Arthur Blythe  /  alto saxophone

Hamiet Bluiett  /  baritone saxophone

Abdul Wadud  /  cello

Barry Altschul  /  drums, percussion

Daniel Ben Zebulan  /  congas

B  -  The Hard Blues .................................................................. 20:07

Julius Hemphill  /  alto saxophone

Hamiet Bluiett  /  baritone saxophone

Baikida E. J. Carroll  /  trumpet

Abdul Wadud  /  cello

Phillip Wilson  /  drums, percussion

This historic LP includes a 20-minute performance with altoist Julius Hemphill, trumpeter Baikida Carroll, baritonist Hamiet Bluiett, cellist Abdul Wadud and drummer Philip Wilson ("The Hard Blues") taken from the same session that resulted in Dogon A.D. In addition, there are four briefer tracks that feature Hemphill, Bluiett, Wadud, altoist Arthur Blythe, drummer Barry Altschul and the congas of Daniel Zebulon. The music throughout is quite avant-garde but differs from the high-energy jams of the 1960s due to its emphasis on building improvisations as a logical outgrowth from advanced compositions. It's well worth several listens.

Julius Hemphill is a composer and an improviser: a composer in the tradition of Ellington, Mingus, and Ra, and an improviser with deep roots in the blues.

Side one of ‘Coon Bid’Ness (four tracks) works as a single composition. The opening piece, “Reflections,” begins with a slow lament, the three horns and cello creating dark, rich harmonies and utilizing a subtle vibrato to underline the music’s pathos. “Lyric” continues in this vein; then the space begins to open up. Hemphill, it seems, likes to work with several layers of sound, to slowly take them apart – to the point of near dissolution – then to put them back together again (though not necessarily the same as they were before). This is what happens during “Lyric” and also during “Skin 1.” The latter piece especially works its way into some very free space. Then “Skin 2” offers alternate choices as to the side’s resolution; yet there is no real resolution, only lingering afterthoughts. (Review: Henry Kuntz, 1975)

In ancient times, when the preferred form of recorded musical conveyance was a grooved vinyl disc called the "LP," there was a thing called the "side-length track" a single piece of music that took up an entire side of a 2-sided disc. "The Hard Blues" is one of those: 20 minutes of raw, grooving, R&B-drenched free jazz (with a small dose of bebop) that makes up Side Two of saxophonist Julius Hemphill's classic album 'Coon Bid'ness (the acerbic title is the African-American Hemphill's deliberate co-optation of a racial slur). Free jazz was ideal for the side-length track; the better for the improvisers to stretch out ... which is, after all, what free jazz musicians are wont to do. The musicians on "The Hard Blues" pack every possible ounce of content into their allotted 20 minutes, imbuing leader Julius Hemphill's avant-soul composition with enough energy to light up Motown on Devil's Night. Other free jazz guys worked from an R&B perspective, both before and after, but few adopted as gritty an approach as Hemphill and Co. take here. Especially notable are the hyper-agile cellist Abdul Wadud, whose trebly bassline twangs and grooves simultaneously, and Hemphill himself, who puts his experience in Ike Turner's band to good use. Trumpeter Baikida Carroll is terrific as well; his almost Dolphy-esque flights are a revelation. This is rare and raw stuff of a kind seldom heard, then or now. (Review: Chris Kelsey)

In the U.S., it seems, the Seventies have been more a period of consolidation rather than of innovation (as if the advances of the last decade had to be justified before being built upon). In the process, however, some highly original and beautiful music has been made, bringing together various (and sometimes diverse) stylistic elements. Hard to say exactly where this music will lead, but much of it will easily survive the moment of its own creation and is well worth appreciating. Julius Hemphill’s album offers music of this sort, and it’s recommended.

Excellent stuff, comes highly recommended for anyone interested in avant-garde jazz.

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!

WILDFLOWERS 4 – The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (Douglas / LP4-1977)

Label: Douglas – NBLP 7048

Series: Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions – 4

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 - Hamiet Bluiett – Tranquil Beauty ....................................................... 6:30

         Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet – Hamiet Bluiett

         Bass – Juney Booth

         Drums – Charles Bobo Shaw, Don Moye

         Guitar – Billy Patterson, Butch Campbell

         Trumpet – Olu Dara

A2 - Julius Hemphill – Pensive ................................................................. 10:00

         Alto Saxophone – Julius Hemphill

         Cello – Abdul Wadud

         Drums – Phillip Wilson

         Guitar – Bern Nix

         Percussion – Don Moye

B1 - Jimmy Lyons – Push Pull ................................................................... 5:20

         Alto Saxophone – Jimmy Lyons

         Bass – Hayes Burnett

         Bassoon – Karen Borca

         Drums – Henry Maxwell Letcher

B2 - Oliver Lake – Zaki .............................................................................. 9:30

         Alto Saxophone – Oliver Lake

         Bass – Fred Hopkins

         Drums – Phillip Wilson

         Electric Guitar – Michael Jackson

B3 - David Murray – Shout Song ............................................................... 2:30

         Bass – Fred Hopkins

         Drums – Stanley Crouch

         Tenor Saxophone – David Murray

         Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Olu Dara

...The common critical consensus is that the 1970s, particularly the latter half of the decade, were the historical low point for jazz in America. Very few albums survive from that era, compared with the avalanches of reissues and vault clearing box-sets of 1950s and 60s groups. Part of this is, of course, due to the short shrift granted the avant-garde by most jazz historians. The music of the so-called "New Thing," which by rote doctrine had burned itself out by 1968, in fact continued throughout the 1970s, expanding to Europe in search of audiences and growing and evolving artistically to astonishing levels of power and beauty...

The 5-LPs set Wildflowers documents one small part of this forgotten music scene. Recorded over ten days in May 1976 at Sam Rivers’s Studio RivBea, this set contains an overwhelming amount of truly beautiful jazz performances, by names recognizable to almost anyone with a serious interest in the music. Saxophonists include Sam Rivers, David Murray, David S. Ware, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Byard Lancaster, Oliver Lake, Jimmy Lyons, Julius Hemphill and Henry Threadgill. Drummers include Sunny Murray, Don Moye, Steve McCall, Andrew Cyrille, and Stanley Crouch. Bassist Fred Hopkins is practically omnipresent here...

If you find it, buy this album!