Label:
Atavistic – UMS/ALP215CD
Series:
Unheard Music Series –
Format:
CD, Album, Reissue / Country: US / Released: 2001
Style:
Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at
Berea Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri in the fall of 1973.
Photography
By – Jacki Ochs
Cover
Design By – Luther Thomas
Recorded
By – Steve Fuller
Reissue
Producer – John Corbett
01
- Funky Donkey . . . . . . 20:02
(Written-By – Lester Bowie, Luther
Thomas)
02
- Una New York . . . . . . 18:10
(Written-By – Charles Bobo Shaw)
03
- Intensity . . . . . . 26:11
(Written-By – Oliver Lake)
alto
saxophone – Luther Thomas
bass
(fender) – Eric Foreman
drums
(trap) – Charles Bobo Shaw
guitar
– Marvin Horne
percussion
– Abdella Ya Kum, Rocky Washington
reeds
– J.D. Parran
trombone
– Joseph Bowie
trumpet – Floyd
LeFlore, Harold Pudgey Atterbury, Lester Bowie
At
the risk of over-simplification, I think it is possible to detect two distinct
trajectories within the Free Jazz movement from its beginnings at the turn of
the 1960s. One involved the journey of the solo instrument—exploratory,
cerebral and often introspective. The other was a more collective project,
expressive, energetic and concerned with the dynamics of group sound. The
critics tended to prefer the former, the general public was not much interested
in either. In recent times interest in the collective sounds—best exemplified
by Sun Ra or the Art Ensemble of Chicago—has risen, so this release, which
falls firmly in the latter camp, might gain an audience that it undoubtedly did
not have at the time of its initial release.
The
late sixties saw a number of musicians, writers and artists respond both to the
political climate and the various cultural nationalist manifestoes of the
period by setting up collaborative projects. A Black Arts Group was established,
in emulation of the better known Chicago based AACM, in St.Louis and featured
the likes of Oliver Lake and Julius Hemphill. Within that body the Human Arts
Ensemble developed, built around drummer Charles Bobo Shaw, saxophonist Luther
Thomas and teenage trumpeter Joseph Bowie—younger brother of Lester. This
grouping toured Europe and recorded (for Black Lion) under the leadership of
Shaw but this 1973 session was led by Thomas and a vinyl copy will set you back
$125 or so. For this CD is a re-issue of a rare recording of a concert held in
the Berea Presbyterian Church in St. Louis before a small and subdued (cowed
into submission?) audience.
Funky
Donkey is not smooth jazz. In fact the easiest way to describe it is to think
of all the adjectives that stand as polar opposites to that term. Noisy, brash,
angry, discordant, uninhibited, imaginative, unhinged, rough, raw. Got the
picture? Energy is the keyword and easy listening it is not. However, it is not
rarefied in the way a lot of free jazz can be and its gutbucket blowing over
rocky beats should not sound so strange to today’s less genre-bound listeners.
Should rather than will, I stress.
The
two Bowies (trumpet and trombone), Lester already famous for his Chicago
connections, Shaw (trap drums) and Thomas (alto) are joined by J.D. Parran
(various reeds) and a backing group of two trumpets, two percussionists, guitar
and bass. The horns fire about all over the place while the rhythm section lays
down a solid funk-rock foundation. This will lead to a lot of nonsense being
written about the JBs meet Ornette but it is not like that at all. The funk
here is bar-room rhythm and blues rather than the tightness of Fred Wesley’s
men. The solos are also less individuated than you would get with Coleman,
Shepp or Cherry. It is the whole band sound that is the essence—like one
multi-voiced brass instrument that roars and shrieks across the whole album.
There is a fierce muscularity about the endeavour and the effect can be
somewhat exhausting. Most of the time though, it is invigorating and repeated
listening brings out a variety of textures not apparent on confronting the
first onslaught. An onslaught it is, be in no doubt, and those of a nervous
disposition might well wish to leave the room fairly early on.
There
are just three (lengthy) pieces—“Funky Donkey”, “Una New York” and “Intensity”.
The first, by Thomas, is the rockiest. The third, an Oliver Lake composition,
is the most conventionally avant-garde (if that makes sense). Track two bears
Shaw’s name and is a mixture of both. It has a strong melodic sense (in a
suitably loose sense of the term) and has a freshness that just about makes it
the pick of the three. The guitars and backing horns have a greater fluidity
than on the other tracks and a swirling three way conversation develops between
rhythm, brass backing and solo ventures. With some strong repeated choruses, it
is almost catchy at times.
“Funky
Donkey” itself is hard and heavy. Atonal squawking leads into a chugging guitar
riff that does not let up for the entire 20 minutes of the piece. Over that
trumpets, trombones and saxes fight it out with gusto and an unmelodious glee.
If one wanted to cite an example of the much-discussed relationship between
free jazz and black militant anger then this would do very well. A left-field
rock audience might appreciate this more than many jazz ones as there is a
certain common ground here with the work of Zappa or even Sonic Youth. Joseph
Bowie, of course, went on to form Defunkt, whose jazz-rock experimental funk found
some favour with both audiences in the 1980s. This is where he started.
The
Oliver Lake piece is for jazz progressives only, I would guess. It was not part
of the initial release and is a long extended improvisation—slightly more
meditative than the earlier tracks but still pretty robust. The various reeds
and horns range far and wide, making this a very representative example of free
form blowing. The electric rhythm is less to the fore here which removes some
of the distinctive quality of this particular line-up but may make it more
amenable to purists. Purity is however not a word that really suits this type
of music, it suggests a formal coherence that was not being attempted.
There
is a coherence at the level of mood and emotional register and in its political
aesthetics. The historical context is important to understanding that. Yet this
is no museum piece. For all its uncompromising “difficulty” and its less than
perfect sound quality, it remains a vibrant and oddly joyful experience. If you
like exuberance in your music, if you are prepared to give something a little
different a second listen and if the words free and jazz don’t give you
nightmares then you might find this forgotten concert quite satisfying. There
is much to be said for music that avoids the obvious. When it comes in such
determinedly visceral guise as this, it literally demands that we take notice.
Some
of the musicians here achieved fame elsewhere. Some of them were never heard of
again. Both facts are beside the point here, which was to produce an
African-American sound that stressed Freedom and a distinct cultural identity.
Valuable, therefore, as a little snapshot of some heady times, it is more
valuable in that it still sounds daring and dynamic. The unremitting power of the
playing is curiously cathartic, if you give it a chance. It deserves that
chance.
_
By Maurice Bottomley, 19 March 2001
Buy
this album!
