CHICO FREEMAN – The Search (LP-1983)

Label: India Navigation – IN 1059
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1983
Style: Hard Bop, Free/Avant-Garde Jazz
India Navigation Studio Recording, 1982
Design – Tan Ohe
Photography By – Beth Cummins
Producer – Bob Cummins

This is a beautiful collaboration between Freeman and the vocalist Val Eley. All four tracks include vocals by Eley. Her singing is very strong. The opening, "The Search", starts with unaccompanied vocal line. The moment when the piano trio jumps in always gives me goosebumps even after tens of listens to this album. I was at a cafe one day and listened to this album, fascinated with it, and walked immediately to a record store and bought it. Kenny Barron is so wonderful on this album. McBee playing in this album is very secure (in terms of intonation). Participation of Nana Vasconcelos is also great. All the four compositions are very well composed, arranged, and performed.

A1 - The Search  10:52
A2 - Illas  11:48
B1 - Close To You Alone  7:30
B2 - Soweto Suite  12:25

CHICO FREEMAN – Saxophone, Flute
KENNY BARRON – Piano
VAL ELEY – Vocals
CECIL McBEE – Bass
JAY HOGGARD – Vibraphone, Marimba
NANA VESCONCELOS – Berimbau, Percussion
BILLY HART – Drums

Surely, it ’ s not the most known album nor the easiest to find of this musician and composer. Even so, it ’ s an excellent work, where the vocal performance of Val Eley gives it a character of great beauty and exclusivity.

Although Jazz always was the basis of the music composed by Chico Freeman, many of his works present a rather sharp stylistic diversity as he himself likes to point out: “ My objective is to explore new worlds, and I don ’ t want to be limited by categories. The only limitations I place on myself are the limitations on my own imagination, and within that realm, there are none ” .

Comprising three originals from Freeman and one from Cecil McBee, “ The Search ” is a memorable album, which reveals the vocal performance of Val Eley denoting a strong lyrical component, a style of recitation and drama so popular in the Cabaret music or the hippie revival of the musical “ Hair ” . Although I ’ m not a special follower of the singing Jazz, this album left me rendered to Eley ’ s vocal and interpretive skills, from the very first audition.

But this musical piece is much more than the voice of Eley, or we were not dealing with a star cast, composed of the finest instrumentalists. The faultless performance of Cecil McBee (bass) and Billy Hart (drums) is joined by the brilliant Kenny Barron (piano), giving the 40 minutes of this record, an unparalleled rhythmic robustness. Jay Hoggard (vibraphone/marimba) and Nana Vasconcelos (berimbau/percussion) complement the aesthetic sense of this work, with details of great opportunism and excellence. As for Chico Freeman, those who know him from other albums, know how exciting his performance can be. A real musical treat.

Generating a positive wave that emanates a contagious spirituality of influences as diverse as the Hard- Bop, R&B or the Free/Avant-Garde Jazz, this work can be heard with the greatest pleasure, without ever becoming dull or boring.

"The Search" is indeed a serious case of inspiration and musical quality and therefore I never tire of recommending it to all my friends and lovers of good music.



If you find it, buy this album!

LLOYD McNEILL – Elegia (LP-1980) and LLOYD McNEILL QUARTET – Asha (LP-1969)

LLOYD McNEILL – Elegia (LP-1980)
Label: Baobab Record Co. – BRC-3, Baobab Record Co. – Baobab No. 3
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1980
Style: Free Improvisation, Fusion
Recorded Dec., 13, 1979 at Right Track Recording Studios NYC
Artwork By [Front Cover Painting], Design – Ron DiScenza
Composed By, Arranged By, Producer, Liner Notes – Lloyd McNeill
Conductor – Andrew White
Engineer [Recording], Mixed By – Vince McGarry

A1 - Samba For The Animals  7:38
A2 - Behind The Wind [Flute Solo]  2:23
A3 - Asha II  11:15
B1 - Elegiac Suite For Elizabeth  12:39
        a - Time
        b - The Mighty River
        c - The Wind 
B2 - Stripped Pants [With Cadenza]  3:14
B3 - Memory Cycle  7:27

LLOYD McNEILL ....... Flute, Alto Flute
DOM SALVADOR ....... Piano
CECIL McBEE ....... Bass
PORTINHO ....... Brazilian Percussion
CLAUDIO CELSO ....... Guitar
NANÁ VASCONCELOS ....... Percussion, Vocals
SUSAN OSBORN ....... Vocals

The first thing to know about Lloyd McNeill is that his are the very best soul-jazz flute LPs, and each is first-rate, a masterpiece of self-direction. The second thing to know is there is much more to him than his recorded legacy. He is one of those incredible, super-sensitive people who excels at every artistic idiom and endeavor; making wonderful music is just part of his flowing creativity. A professor (at Rutgers University, earlier Dartmouth), he has much to say about music and creativity as well as an impeccable gift for saying it...sensibly. McNeill's writings on his musical experiences provide invaluable documents of "the period" (late 1960s-1970s) as well as a rare glimpse at the joy of a relatively unsung master.

Born in Washington, DC in 1935, McNeill earned his B.A. at Morehouse College in Atlanta and also studied painting at Howard University in his home town and lithography at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He has taught variously painting, illustration, and music at Dartmouth, Howard, Spelman, and Livingston College at Rutgers University. Films he has scored include "To Market, To Market," "TV Education in Samoa," and "Summer in the Parks." Also his quartet provided the music for the Spoken Arts LP "The Dream Awake."

McNeill has played with jazz legends --Andrew White (his longtime collaborator/producer), Eric Dolphy, Sabu Martinez, Mulatu Astatke, among many others-- and he has had a significant hand in the arts scene of Washington, D.C. The major galleries of art, including those of the Smithsonian, sponsored multi-media "happenings" that soared far above the hippie caricature of acid rock with light show. During the first flowering of post-Civil Rights, African-American culture, the Lloyd McNeill Quartet's improvisitory, simultaneuous jazz and large-scale painting "happened" while a lucky, perhaps unsuspecting public drank it in.

McNeill believes his influences and their results in his art, music, and poetry are inseparable and mutually reinforcing. Time spent with Picasso in Cannes, 1965 led to new expressions in all three, for instance. And when one brushes against a force such as Picasso, just the idea of "meeting Picasso" has a certain momentum, never mind the inevitable casting of rays of a different kind of light. Canvas, vinyl, the stage, paper, and books of poetry offer a few key imprints of McNeill, and McNeill consistently pays tribute to many illustrious peers.

There are six principal albums, all produced and entirely under the artist's control. Each title surpasses anything comparable on the major labels, even Blue Note. The Black Jazz label may be roughly similar in style, but Asha and Baobab are wholly Lloyd McNeill. The records reflect none of the usual external trends from the decade in which they were recorded; all sound like 1971 rather than 1979. The final record even reprises the first (the exotic, broodingly moody "Asha"), and the sound throughout remains somewhat interchangeable and timeless. But each record has its own themes and currents, and even improvisation has its signatures and fingerprints.

LLOYD McNEILL QUARTET – Asha (LP-1969)
Label: ASHA Recording Co. Inc. – ASHA One  /  ASHA NO. 1
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1969
Style: Free Improvisation, Fusion
Recorded at Edgewood Recording Studio, 1969.
Design [Cover] – McNeill
Engineer [Recording] – Ed Green
Photography By [Photos] – Joan Knight

A1 - Asha  8:45
A2 - As A Matter Of Fact  4:53
A3 - Two-Third's Pleasure  5:53
A4 - Dig Where Dat's At!  3:27
B1 - St. Margaret's Church  6:50
B2 - Effervescence  6:51
B3 - Warmth Of A Sunny Day  10:22

LLOYD McNEILL ..... Piccolo Flute, Flute
GENE RUSH ..... Piano
STEVE NOVOSEL ..... Bass
ERIC GRAVATT ..... Drums, Percussion
PAUL HAWKINS ..... Percussion [Latin]

ASHA Recording Co. Inc. – ASHA NO. 1

Buying:
Collectors items, Lloyd McNeill records should be snapped up on sight. Hip Wax is pleased to offer the two titles for which limited stock remains as well as the Black Line book. Other items, such as used originals of other titles and rare LPs featuring Lloyd McNeill, may be available. See the jazz page at Hip Wax for all items.
http://www.hipwax.com/


In front of you are two beautiful albums. Enjoy!



Buy this album!