Frank Lowe - Bodies and Soul

Regrets for the absence - life's what happens while you're busy making plans. I will try and post more often (a pre-New Years resolution, perhaps?).

Memphis born Frank Lowe was influential among improvising musicians. He began as a fire-breather but developed into a player of great depth. This 1995 recording is one of his later efforts and is a trio session with Charles Moffett on drums and Tim Flood on bass and Lowe on tenor sax. It's one of his best. Get it!

This is a fitting way to return to this blog...

The playlist goes like this:

1. Impressions

2. Soul of Fortune

3. Bethera

4. Nothing But Love

5. Don One #1

6. Don One #2

7. Happy House

8. For Louie

9. Art Deco

10. Body and Soul

Enjoy!

Billy Harper - Capra Black, 1973

Billy Harper recorded the very first recording for the Black Saint label. Suitably, the album was called Black Saint. This recording preceded that record by two years. It was released on the Strata East label and is still considered one of the most important records of the Black Conciousness movement. Billy Harper was heavily influenced by John Coltrane without being completely tied to Trane's style.

This is essential listening, plain and simple, though there is nothing plain or simple about this music.

Playlist:

1. Capra Black

2. Sir Galahad

3. New Breed

4. Soulfully, I Love You / Black Spiritual of Love

5. Cry of Hunger

Enjoy!

Nels Cline Singers Live, 2007...

A couple of years ago Nels Cline was everywhere. He led several bands, played in several others, conspired with Tom Rainey and Andrea Parkins, led his own recording that paid tribute to Andrew Hill and, to top it all off, filled in the role of lead guitar for Jeff Tweedy's Wilco. And that barely scratches the surface...

The other two members of the Singers - drummer Scott Amendola and bassist Devin Hoff - are busy musicians themselves, leading their own projects as well as being parts of other ensembles. Needless to say, they're busy.

The performance we have here was recorded at Safari Sam's in West Hollywood on Wednesday, December 5, 2007. There are six pieces and, no, there are no vocals. The Singers don't sing. Here's the playlist:

1. Squirrel of God

2. Sunken Song

3. Jackieing (Monk)

4. Attempted

5. Dedication (Andrew Hill)

6. Something About David H.

Enjoy!

Turkish Women at the Bath...

His name is really Pete Sims. He left jazz to be a lawyer. He's a damned fine drummer. He recorded two amazing records: Basra, this album before he left the business in 1968. He called on some of the best cutting edge musicians at the time - John Gilmore, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Steve Kuhn, Steve Swallow, and Walter Booker. This album was originally released on the Douglas label. LaRoca is joined by Gilmore, Corea and Booker on this recording. The program plays out like this:

1. Turkish Women at the Bath

2. Dancing Girls

3. Love Planet

4. Marjoun

5. Bliss

6. Sin Street

7. And So I

Enjoy!

Old and New Dreams - Saalfelden Jazz Festival, 1986...

They were a quartet supergroup who paid tribute to one of the true innovators of jazz. They were called Old and New Dreams. They all had, at times, played for Ornette Coleman. Three of them are no longer alive: Don Cherry, Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell. One of them - Charlie Haden continues to create great music to this day.

This performance is taken from an FM broadcast from the Staalfelden Jazz Festival on August 29, 1986. Drummer Paul Motian replaces Blackwell for this date. The sound quality is very good, though it is a mono recording, but, truthfully, it doesn't make a bit of difference to the listening experience There are five pieces, four of which are named. This is the playlist:

1. ? - 3:26

2. Lonely Woman - 16:15

3. The Sphinx - 11:13

4. Song For Che - 16:38

5. Guinea - 7:38

Enjoy!

Sunshine - An Even Break... Here's Sunny Murray...

Sorry for the absence...

Sunny Murray has been considered one of the most influential free jazz drummers for forty years. He helped define the role of the drummer when timekeeping percussion became redundant in the mid-sixties. This CD release easily combines two short Actuel recordings - Sunshine and An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker).

Enjoy!

Atomic Live in Malmoe, 2005

Atomic is a Scandinavian quintet that has fused the ECM sound with the sixties free jazz movement (as represented by Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler). Band members Paal Nilssen-Love, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Frederik Ljungkvist and Magnus Broo are closely associated with the current free jazz / improv scene led by Ken Vandermark, Peter Brotzmann and Evan Parker. What makes Atomic unique, in my opinion, is the fact that the band includes pianist, Havard Wiik. It's not that the band includes Wiik, in particular, but that the band has a pianist at all. Including a pianist in a band immediately focuses the concept and structure of the music created - the composition structure is effected, the solo structure changes and the overall tightness of performance. A piano just seems to change the game plan.

The ensemble has recorded several albums, such as:

The concert presented here originated on Swedish radio. The pieces are unnamed. It was performed in Malmoe in 2005.

Enjoy!

"What It Be Like?"...

This companion release, taken from the same August 8, 1992 performance at Yoshi's In Oakland, California is augmented on the final piece with Don Cherry. It was released on the Enja Records label in 1994, a year after the previous post.

Enjoy!

"What It Is?"...

It would not be an overstatement to say that Ed Blackwell is one of the most influential drummers in the history of jazz. He played with many of the important players from the 1960's onward, including Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, Mal Waldron, Anthony Braxton and Marion Brown (to name a few). But he never achieved the notoriety that several of the more flamboyant drummers earned (think: Art Blakey, Max Roach or Elvin Jones), despite being every bit as central to the development of the jazz after Bebop as those cited above.

I think it is important to remember that Blackwell was born in New Orleans because his style, it seems, was informed by the marching band ethos that originated in that city in the late 1800's to well into the twentieth century. His approach to drumming has been described as unpolished, rigid and, even at times, heavy-handed but that might be a bit hasty.

This post (and the next one) offers up Ed Blackwell's band performing live at Yoshi's in Oakland, California on the night of August 8, 1992. The two recordings were released on the Enja record label in 1993 and 1994 respectively. Blackwell's band includes Graham Haynes (son of drummer Roy Haynes) on cornet, Carlos Ward (most closely associated with Abdullah Ibrahim's band) on alto sax and flute, and (the ubiquitous) bassist Mark Helias. The band is billed as the Ed Blackwell Project and the first recording is titled Ed Blackwell Project Vol.1 "What It Is?" and the second is called Ed Blackwell Project Vol.2 "What It Be Like?".

Ed Blackwell died less that two months later on October 7, 1992.

Enjoy!

The Carmelites...

My infatuation with the music of Loren Mazzacane Connors happened fast and hard. In a former life, I frequented a wonderful record store in Montreal called Cheap Thrills (on Metcalfe) fairly often. That's where I found Connors' early recording, In Pittsburgh. I knew nothing about him except that he inhabited the musical fringe (I liked him already!), created what was considered by many to be "dark music", and he sounded like absolutely no one else. Naturally, I just had to hear him.

Man, his music hit me hard!

He played stark, haunting, introspective, blues-drenched guitar that was usually unaccompanied and unadorned.

With each trip to Montreal and Cheap Thrills I scoured their stock for any Connors discs I did not have. I now own 23 of his recordings, a mere drop in the LMC discographical bucket. This offering - The Carmelites - was recorded for a Japanese label, complete with Japanese linernotes, which are absolutely useless to me...ah, but the music...

If you like it let me know. I could post more...

Enjoy!

After the Dawn Has Risen...

I've been a fan of Ernest Khabeer Dawkins for many years. I've been lucky enough to see him perform live three time - twice with Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and once with Hamid Drake's Bindu - but never with his own New Horizons Ensemble. Someday... I own several of his ensemble's recordings and enjoy them all a lot. What I love most about this ensemble's music is its intense joy - the joy they emit while playing and the joy the listener breeds inside while taking it all in.

This offering - my first for 2010 - is a 1992 recording on the German label Open Minds and was recorded live on October 25, 1991. The lineup includes a couple of the fine players who have been in Dawkins' ensemble for the duration of its existence - Steve Barry, Yosef Ben Israel - as well as one of my favourite drummers - Reggie Nicholson - whom I raved about in the Myra Melford post a while back.

OK, I thought it would be tomorrow but Now's the Time...

Enjoy!

Variations on Selected Themes For Jazz Quintet...

The late John Carter joins Ornette Coleman and Enrico Rava as the only artists (so far) to have multiple posts devoted to their music here at S&F. If this offering proves to be popular there'll be more...

I am still in the hunt for the fifth and final part of his "Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music" called Shadows on a Wall. My dream is that some day some enterprising record company owner will acquire the rights to the four parts that originally were released on the Gramavision label (a label which no longer exists). I suppose the only sticking point to seeing this happen is the reality that the first part of this series of suites - Dauwhe - was (and still is) available from Black Saint Records. Hopefully, someday...

But, I digress...

This record was recorded in August of 1979 in Germany for the Moers Music label and features the stellar lineup of Carter on clainet, Bobby Bradford on trumpet, James Carter on flute, Bob Stewart on tuba and the late Phillip Wilson on drums. The album includes a couple of his more popular (relatively speaking) compositions - "Echoes From Harlem", "Woodman's Hall Blues", and "And She Speaks".

Enjoy! And let me know if you'd like to see more John Carter here. Thanks!

Sun Ra at the Village Vanguard...

It seemed "normal" enough (OK, a normal Sun Ra recording, what ever that means) when I first picked it up. His sextet playing live at the Village Vanguard; John Gilmore on bass and John Ore on drums and, of course, Sun Ra on synthesizer. So I read no further. So I put the disc in the player. So I started to listen... Huh? That sounds like a piano, not a synthesizer! And isn't that Monk's "Round Midnight"? So I look at the back cover of the CD a little more closely. No mention of a piano but they do interpret Monk's "Round Midnight" as well as Vernon Duke's "Autumn in New York" and the Gershwins' "S'Wonderful". Who de thunk it? Not me... Give it a listen... This recording is a lot like the game my daughter plays from time to time where "yes" means "no" and "no" means "yes". Only in this case "strange" means "normal" and "normal" means "strange" - if you know what I mean.

Enjoy!

How Time Passes...

Truth be told, I've never been a big fan of Don Ellis. No particular reason other than his music just never grabbed me. So why, then, did I get this disc? Because Jaki Byard is on it. I've been a huge fan of his ever since I first heard him playing in Mingus' band. I raved about him in a previous post and I'll rave about him again: listening to Byard is like taking a crash course on the history of jazz. Along with Ellis on trumpet and Byard on piano and alto sax (the instrument he played as a member of Earl Bostic's and Herb Pomeroy's bands) is bassist Ron Carter and drummer Charli Persip. It was recorded October 4 & 5, 1960 and released on the Candid label (another reason I bought this disc: I've never heard a bad recording from this small but influential record label).

And, oh yeah, is it just me or does the cover of this album seem remotely suggestive? Maybe it's just me...

Enjoy!

This is Billy Mitchell...

Tenor sax player Billy Mitchell was never considered part of the A list of jazz musicians, though he was considered influential within his circle. He came out of Detroit in the 40's and had stints with Count Basie's band in the 50's. He began to lead his own hard bop sessions in the 60's. This - his second recording as leader - was recorded at the end of October, 1962. What makes this session so interesting is the fact he has included a young vibraphonist, Bobby Hutcherson, in the band. The album was recorded in two days with Mitchell, Hutcherson, bassist Herman Wright and drummer Otis Finch for both. On October 29, Mitchell used organist Clarence "Sleepy" Anderson. On October 20, Mitchell used pianist Billy Wallace and trumpeter Dave Burns.

Enjoy!

Meet the Choir Boys...

It's funny how things converge without you even knowing it...

I was in a used CD store in Halifax, Nova Scotia - if you get to Halifax you MUST check out TAZ RECORDS - a while back and decided to root through a .99 cent bargin bin. As a rule, I avoid bargin bins in good record stores because they know what's valuable and what's not and their opinion generally coincides with my tastes, so it's usually a waste of time. But something - a niggling little voice - told me to peruse what was there. I did and I found this: The Choir Boys With Strings. Now, if I had done this a year earlier I probably would have overlooked this CD because I was not familiar with any of the players. But that previous year I had completely immersed myself in the music of Mark O'Leary (for my money, the most consistently surprising and exciting guitar player playing today) and had become acquainted with many musicians he had collaborated with on his fifteen or so albums that I had been unaware of to that point. Two of these players - trumpet player Jeff Kaiser (who appears on O'Leary's On The Shore) and bassist Steuart Liebig (who appears on O'Leary's Signs) - had left lasting impressions on me. The third player - guitarist G. E. Stinson - was on my radar because he was a member of Alex Cline's ensemble. So three out of four members of the Choir Boys were players I'd heard many times, though I had no knowledge of the Choir Boys. Naturally, I grabbed the disc and now you get to hear it. There are eight pieces but are, essentially, two suite-like pieces: tracks 1-5 and tracks 6-8. The music is quite free, incorporates electronics and tape loops and is recorded live in concert.

Enjoy!

Meet the Sultan of Strings...

I first heard guitarist Orhan Demir in the early 90's after I'd read a fascinating review of one of his recordings, Guitar Plus in the Canadian jazz magazine, Coda. The review mentioned that Demir was born in Turkey but now lived in Toronto. It also went on to compare him to Django Reinhardt, Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin. At the time I was totally enthralled by the guitar and knew I just had to have that recording. So, naturally, I searched out Cadence magazine (back in the days when it meant poring over their "centre section" with a magnifying glass). I found the CD listed as well as today's offering, Originals. When they arrived to my home, I put them into the CD player fully expecting to hear an updating of the gypsy jazz genre but I was totally wrong. The music was a fusion of middle eastern melodies, scales and rhythms filtered through a western jazz attitude. It was not jaunty. It was intense. The recording is a collection of material he recorded between 1986 and 1990 and was digitally mastered in 1997. It's released on Demir's own label HITTITE. You can order his CDs here.

All this to say, check this out if you want to hear something unique and exciting.

Enjoy!

Art of the Duo, Another View...

George Adams and Don Pullen were perfect collaborators. Pullen was a fluid, lightning fast pianist and George Adams was a bluesy, big-toned tenor player. They recorded together many times over their career. They co-led a quartet with Dannie Richmond and Cameron Brown that produced several excellent recordings for the Timeless label. With this recording (also from the Dutch label Timeless) we hear Pullen and Adams in duet setting.

Enjoy

Featuring the Bari...

In a previous post I mentioned I was sucker for the baritone sax provided it was played with tenderness and passion (not expressions that are mutually exclusive as far as I'm concerned). I also mentioned I was not a big fan of Gerry Mulligan but was first turned on to the big horn by Serge Chaloff. I'm also a huge fan of Pepper Adams, Nick Brignola as well as newer players such as Rodrigo Amado. One baritone sax player I came across years ago who has stood the test of time for me is Per Goldschmidt. But I came to him because of who he was playing with as opposed to any reputation that preceeded him. The Frame - the recording offered up here - included Jack DeJohnette, Lonnie Plaxico and pianist Niels Lan Doky. It turned out to be a gem. Listen to it and be the judge.

Enjoy!

More Ted (by request)...

My apologies to the person who asked for the entire Ted Curson album, Cattin' Curson. I just plain missed the comment! Sorry about that but I guess better late than never...

I've been quite pleased with the response to the Ted Curson post. I was blown away by him when I first heard him and I hoped others would be too.

Anyway, here it is!

Enjoy!