Archive: March, 2007

sam rivers & roscoe mitchell | performance of may 3, 1975 at michigan state university

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

PERFORMANCE OF MAY 3, 1975 at Michigan State University

Modern black music is so rarely available outside of a few major cities that it was a distinct shock to learn (almost by accident) that Rivers and Mitchell were to appear in concert at this large university deep in the Michigan hinterlands. Rivers (with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul) and Mitchell (who brought Gary Schunk, piano; Steve Miller, bass; and Randy Gillespie, percussion) were to play two concerts a night Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the kiva (a small circular auditorium in the M.S.U. dormitory complex). We caught the earlier performance on Saturday night, and it was apparent that Mitchell’s group especially (his being less of a working band) had benefited from the extended opportunity to work together.

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Sam Rivers - Involution [7:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
Roscoe Mitchell - Full Force [3:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

bells | Comments (0) | 241 Views

revolutionary ensemble | performance of december 1 & 2, 1975 at keystone korner, san francisco

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

PERFORMANCE OF DECEMBER 1 & 2, 1975 at Keystone Korner, San Francisco

Leroy Jenkins / violin, viola (on one piece), wood flute, percussion;
Sirone / bass, wood flute, trombone (on one piece), percussion; Jerome Cooper / drums, wood flute, bowed saw, piano, percussion.

The Revolutionary Ensemble’s first appearance in San Francisco was an unscheduled one. The group was on its way to Los Angeles to record a forthcoming album (for A&M Records’ new Horizon label) and stopped over to play a couple of nights at the Keystone. The dates were set up on short notice, so many people who would have been interested never knew the group was in town; which was unfortunate, as there was some fine music played.

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new york [6:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

bells | Comments (0) | 279 Views

marion brown | duets

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

DUETS (Arista Freedom 1904)

Marion Brown / alto saxophone, clarinet, piano, percussion; Leo Smith (Sides 1 & 2 only) / trumpet, percussion; Elliott Schwartz (Sides 3 & 4 only) / piano, arp synthesizer, percussion, misc.

Recorded: Sides 1 & 2: May 12, 1970 in Paris, France.
Tracks: Centering [1:12] (Leo Smith), Njung-Lumumba Malcolm [18:05] (Leo Smith), And Then They Danced [16:05] (Marion Brown), Rhythmus [3:30] (Leo Smith, Marion Brown).
Sides 3 & 4: February 18, 1973 Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA (live)
Tracks: Soundways [19:33] (Marion Brown, Elliott Schwartz), Soundways Part 2 [20:14] (Marion Brown, Elliott Schwartz)

At a time when Brown’s contemporaries (Ayler, Shepp, Sanders) were making their most important musical statements, Brown seemed still to be searching for a suitable stylistic context. And in contrast to what seems to be the general rule for creative artists, his early work is not his best.

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bells | Comments (0) | 441 Views

marion brown | porto novo

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

PORTO NOVO (Arista AL 1001)

Marion Brown / alto saxophone; Maarten Van Regteren Altena / bass; Han Bennink / drums.

Recorded: December 13, 1967, Soest, The Netherlands

Tracks: 1. Similar Limits [6:25] (Marion Brown), 2. Sound Structure [6:10] (Marion Brown), 3. Improvisation [5:50] (Marion Brown), 4. QBIC [6:32] (Marion Brown), 5. Porto Novo [11:55] (Marion Brown).

Recorded: May 12, 1970, Paris, France, 6. And Then They Danced [16:05] (Marion Brown), 7. Rhythmus No. 1 [3:30] (Leo Smith, Marion Brown)

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bells | Comments (0) | 370 Views

sun ra | late 1974 performances by his intergalactic myth-science arkestra

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

LATE 1974 PERFORMANCES BY HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH-SCIENCE ARKESTRA

Sun Ra / piano, farfisa organ, moog synthesiser; John Gilmore / drums, tenor saxophone; Marshall Allen / alto saxophone; Danny Davis / alto saxophone; Danny Thompson / baritone saxophone; Kwami Hadi / trumpet; Ahk Tal Ebah / trumpet, baritone horn; Eloe Omoe / bass clarinet; June Tyson / dance and vocals; Additional dancers and instrumentalists; Light show coordinator.

“The Myth Science Arkestra was initiated to revive the whole spectrum of sounds, recreating the total Energy needed to restore the power of the ORIGIN/al symbol - THE ANKHNATION.

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bells | Comments (0) | 542 Views

sun ra | fate in a pleasant mood

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

FATE IN A PLEASANT MOOD (Impulse AS 9270)

Sun Ra and his Myth-Science Arkestra: Sun Ra / piano, John Gilmore / tenor saxophone, Marshall Allen / alto saxophone and flute, Ronnie Boykins / bass, Lucius Randolph / trumpet, George Hudson / trumpet; Edward Skinner / percussion; Nate Pryor / trombone.

Recorded: 1959, Saturn Studios, Chicago.

Fate In A Pleasant Mood is an early Sun Ra recording that contains in seminal form any number of elements of Ra’s later work. But though those elements are here, one would not have guessed from this recording the gigantic and audacious steps forward Sun Ra would shortly take.

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bells | Comments (0) | 229 Views

archie shepp | montreux one & montreux two

Monday, March 26th, 2007

MONTREUX ONE (Arista AL 1027) and MONTREUX TWO (Arista AL 1034)

Archie Shepp / tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone (on TWO only), Charles Majid Greenlee / trombone, Dave Burrell / piano, Cameron Brown / bass, Beaver Harris / drums.

Recorded: July 18, 1975 in concert.

“For us, music is functional as well as aesthetic. The artist presumes to judge life, to assess it for all men, to accept it, to reject it.” - Archie Shepp, Notes to Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet (Savoy)

For Shepp, music was always an essentially political expression, and at its best (say, certain of the pre-Impulse and early Impulse recordings, the pointed version of “Hambone” on The New Wave In Jazz, or the classic extended improvisations of Life At Donaueschingen or Three For A Quarter/One For A Dime) it was political in and of itself; i.e. in its substantive and formal rejection of western aesthetics, in its affirmation of feeling over abstract “intelligence” and in the clear social/spiritual implications of its cultural open-ended ness.

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bells | Comments (0) | 470 Views

cecil taylor | archie shepp performance of march 23-28, 1976 at keystone korner, san francisco

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Photo: Gérard Rouy

PERFORMANCE OF MARCH 23-28, 1976 at Keystone Korner, San Francisco

SHEPP’S GROUP: Archie Shepp / tenor & soprano saxophones, Dave Burrell / piano, Charles Greenlee / trombone, Cameron Brown / bass, Beaver Harris / drums.

TAYLOR’S GROUP: Cecil Taylor / piano, Jimmy Lyons / alto saxophone, David Ware / tenor saxophone, Raphe Malik / trumpet, Marc Edwards / drums.

A decade ago, a pairing of Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor on the same musical bill would have been an event of major significance. But while Taylor’s music continues to encompass the universe, Shepp has retreated into a narrow eclecticism. Free music for Shepp (when he actually plays freely) has ceased to be exploration but has become merely a style among other styles. This would not in itself be so bad, for Shepp sees himself as something of a black classicist, one who plays the music, traditional and modern, of black people.

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bells | Comments (0) | 341 Views