Monday, December 1, 2008

Mr. X & Mr. Z- Mr. X & Mr. Z Drink Old Gold (1987)


It can be drunk, but only I can drink it, for those that can drink just drink and keep drinkin'.


All right...this song is stupid. And I mean that both in the sense of taking your shirt off and dancing in a threatening way toward group of people you don't know at a club before you throw up on yourself stupid and just plain stupid. But it's the former that we're interested in, and this is one of those songs that as a fan of rap and alcohol you can't really resist. Plus, Mr. X beat The God to it by about 20 years. If you find yourself lost when reading this post and don't recognize the quote above you probably shouldn't download this, because it is stupid, even if it did make fucking Robert Christgau's "Dean's List" for 1987. Sorry to be so cagey but I don't want to ruin the delightful surprise for those of you that have an inkling of what to expect. Enjoy (with acapella)!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Charlie Chaplin- Fire Burn Them Below (1984) and Que Dem (1985)



Until all human
stop thinking corruption
have good meditation
conscious vibration
know that we are one nation
natty dread:
I tell you there shall be war.


Strictly culture, strictly roots. Charlie Chaplin was driven artistically by lifting up the sufferers and smashing down Babylon (much like his namesake, actually), and he paid for his dedication by never having a proper hit in Jamaica. Coming of age in an era of election riots and political turmoil, an overstimulated youth preferred mediocre slackness to superb roots. Don't get me wrong- I enjoy the slackness as much as anyone, but there is no justice in a world where albums like these languish in the out-of-print netherworld. I was actually surprised to find that no one else in the blog world had dropped them already.

These are records you come back to again and again, though they are different. 'Fire' is generally more experimental, with less familiar riddims, more dub fuckery, and a looser, more improvisational style. It also has a great take on Michael Jackson's Thriller. 'Que Dem' is tighter lyrically and production-wise, and runs almost exclusively on classic Studio One riddims (Shank I Shek, Real Rock, Mad Mad, etc.), perhaps two strategies designed to appeal to a broader audience after "Fire" failed to blow up. Both records are great.

George Phang at the Mantrols

Enjoy!


=========================================================

[Original Liner Notes]

[Fire Burn Them Below: 1984]
PRODUCED & ARRANGED BY GEORGE PHANG

MUSICIANS
ALL TRACKS PLAYED BY BLACK ROOTS
EXCEPT "TALKING PEGEON" WITH SLY DUNBAR & ROBBIE SHAKESPEAR [sic]

ENGINEERS: M. RILEY, SOLJIE & R. THOMAS

RECORDED AT DYNAMIC SOUNDS & CHANNEL 1 STUDIOS

SIDE ONE
1. FIRE BURN THEM BELOW
2. LEARN TO READ
3. YOU GOT TO BE TRUE
4. KILLER

SIDE TWO
1. DANCE IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN
2. TALKING PEGEON
3. THERE IS A GREEN HILL
4. DROP OFF A SHAPE

[Que Dem: 1985]
PRODUCED & ARRANGED BY GEORGE PHANG

MUSICIANS
SLY DUNBAR, ROBBIE SHAKESPEARE, WILLIE LINDO, ROBERT LYNN & SKULLY

ENGINEERS: RUDDY THOMAS & SOLJIE HAMILTON

RECORDED AT DYNAMIC SOUNDS & CHANNEL ONE

SIDE ONE
1. DJ A DANCE
2. EXPLOITING
3. NOW A DAYS
4. PRETTY GAL
5. COCO DEALA BROWN

SIDE TWO
1. UNFAIR
2. DIET ROCK
3. QUE DEM
4. FOOD MAN ROCK

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Creative Construction Company- Self-Titled Volume I (1975)



All music, like all art, has philosophical, political, spiritual, and social reverberations, which of course is no surprise. Very few are the artists, however, who have both the breadth and depth of mind to engage consciously with these reverberations, and create art which not only reflects their ideals but enacts them. The theoretical implications of collective improvisation itself (otherwise known as "Free" Jazz) will have to wait for another post, but I would like to get into one specific area of philosophy here to frame this post a bit for the uninitiated. If this kind of thing doesn't appeal to you the music likely won't either.

The history of collective improvisation can be viewed, in some ways, as a dynamic project directed towards diminishing materiality in order to open up vaster spaces of sound, spirit and consciousness. Like the abstract painter's work of a generation earlier filling up the canvas with negative space in order to get at deeper meanings behind the canvas, many jazz artists in the 60s and 70s found that in order to really pile up the ammunition to blow open the structure of a song, less worked a lot more. Emptiness, drones, and silences broken by a climactic scream or mind-splitting cymbal crash can force the listener back to the sound itself, rather than allowing them to be lulled away from the moment by a pleasant melody. By making music less melodic, and therefore less narrative, the listener loses the thread of "song" that leads them through the maze of the recorded sound itself. Paradoxically, for me at least, this again draws me in closer to what is actually happening on the record.

A curious side note is that on a lot of the records in this spirit from this period, you see the instruments diminish in scale as well. "Miscellaneous percussion," and "small instruments," as well as more specific descriptions like "slide whistle" and "triangle" show up all over the place, and you find many musicians expanding the range of the kinds of instruments they play, with pianists picking up a cello or a horn, or reedmen dropping in on percussion or, in this case, violinists playing a bicycle horn. To some classicists this is "noise," or "amateurish" but I prefer to see it as embodying the kind of experimentality that has always thrived in jazz, and which, because so many brave artists insisted and still insist on it, will always keep jazz alive, despite the social and financial prominence of some museum jazz artists.

This album is full of surprises, not least of which for those familiar with the work of the artists featured in the CCC (see see see below). I hope you enjoy it and it makes you listen a little harder.

Enjoy!


=========================================================


[Original Liner Notes]

SIDE A
1. MUHAL (PART I)   19:24

SIDE B
1. MUHAL (PART II)   14:40
    (Live Spiral)                       2:40
    (Total Time)                    17:20

PERSONNEL:
LEROY JENKINS: Violin, viola, recorder, toy xylophone, harmonica, bicycle horn
ANTHONY BRAXTON: Alto sax, soprano sax, clarinet, flute, contrabass clarinet, orchestral chimes
LEO SMITH: Trumpet, flugel horn, french horn, seal horn, misc. percussion
MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS: Piano, cello, clarinet
RICHARD DAVIS: Bass
STEVE MCCALL: Drums, misc. percussion



Around the beginning of 1971 I gradually became aware that something different was going on in the Greenwich Village neighborhood where I live. Strange sounds were coming out of Liberty House on Bleecker Street, which I'd taken to be another boutique featuring over-priced African imports and costume jewelry. One day I noticed an exhibit, set up in a window that had displayed merchandise the day before. It was dedicated to the late Eric Dolphy and included blown up photographs, a bass clarinet, several lead sheets in Dolphy's hand, the music stand he had used to practice. And those strange sounds were coming out the door, not very Dolphyesque sounds either: harmonicas, drums, ballons, voices, bicycle horns, toy pianos. I had to go in and check it out.

What I found was a friendly proprietor named George - he is now known as Kunle Mwanga - and several musicians with lean and hungry looks. They were playing records from a stack, and as I thumbed through I realized that I'd never heard any of them before. I'd heart the names - Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Anthony Braxton, Muhal Abrams - and knew they were members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago, knew they were supposed to be playing music that was really new, newer than New York music of Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp. Soon I was rapping with violinist Leroy Jenkins, a fast-talking, fast-thinking Pisces. "We have a cooperative group," he said, "the Creative Construction Company. Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, Steve McCall, me. We're not basically a solo band; our thing is collective improvisation." But, kazoos, penny whistles, coke bottles? "Colors."

Just now, after listening to the music on this record for the first time since it was recorded, I was struck by how easy it was to hear and to follow. That hadn't always been the case. I went to my AACM shelf and listened again to Three Compositions of New Jazz, the 1968 Delmark album that introduced Braxton, Jenkins and Smith. Sure enough, what had once seemed difficult, recondite music now sounded mellow and amiable. I remembered the comments several critics had made during the late sixties regarding Ornette Coleman, they were surprised that they had initially found his early recordings difficult. So, I though time has caught up with the CCC's music. A second thought occurred almost immediately; there was another reason why the music now sounded so seamless and together. It was together. There had been a lot of color-oriented collective improvisation since the first stirrings of the style, but very little of it had been up to the standards set by the early Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Creative Construction Company.

It could hardly have been otherwise. The musicians had been playing together regularly since 1966-67, most of them, and the AACM had seen to it that they at least had outlets for their ideas. It hadn't been like New York City, where competition between musicians can be withering, groups splinter and fold almost as fast as they're formed, and group personnels as stable as Ornettes's are not just rare but almost impossible. The AACM musicians chipped in to put on their own concerts, they maintained their own school where ghetto youngsters could learn theory and, most importantly, they investigated new ways of playing together without a hint of commercial pressures which intrude into virtually every Manhattan musical enterprise, survival dues being what they are. In that sense, the AACM music was truly new; the players had heard New York music, but few New Yorkers had heard them. The Delmark records were hard to find and the Nessa lp's Bowie and Mitchell made were rarer. The Byg albums the Art Ensemble and the CCC (recording under Braxton's name) had made in 1969 were just beginning to show up in a very few stores. None of the Chicagoans had had any real live exposure in New York.

This was the background of Kunle Mwanga's decision to back a series of Concerts by Chicago groups, beginning with the CCC. The first part of the first concert was Jenkins' "Muhal," dedicated to the AACM founding father who'd been performing with the group on and off since Three Compositions. At this point in time, the music doesn't need a verbal gloss. It is collective improvisation with remarkable range and richness, and even during the most congested moments the textures are quite clear, allowing the listener to follow each player's contribution with ease. The audience which had gathered at Peace Church was a heterogeneous one, but the reaction was unanimous: a collective "wheeew!" Ornette was particularly prominent among the listeners because of the bright orange hard hat he was wearing. Look out, his chapeau seemed to be counseling, something new is coming down.

Braxton's reputation has far outstripped that of the other musicians in the years since this, his New York debut, but even a cursory hearing of the music will reveal that he was in no way the dominant player. A blindfolded listener would probably guess that Jenkins was the leader, so deftly and consistently does his violin sing through. But in fact there was no leader. As Leroy has pointed out on several occasions, the Creative Construction Company was sometimes fronted by Braxton because "Braxton was always better known," but decisions were made and remuneration was divided equally, as was the organization of the group's business. "You are your music," Braxton had been quoted as saying in the liner notes for Three Compositions. Apparently he was right.

It's interesting to note the directions the musicians have traveled since the concert. Jenkins has been carrying on AACM principles in New York as one third of the cooperative group Revolutionary Ensemble. With Sirone (formerly Norris Jones) playing like any three bassists and Jerome Cooper contributing incredibly sensitive percussion the Ensemble is one of the most consistently stimulating groups around. Leo Smith lives near New Haven. He has been performing with Marion Brown and on his own and has become on of the outstanding theorists of contemporary improvisational music through his contributions to The Black Perspective In Music and other publications. Muhal and McCall still live and work in Chicago. Both played on Marion Brown's much-praised Sweet Earth Flying and both continue to demonstrate their remarkable versatility. Muhal has turned up on albums by Sonny Stitt and Eddie Harris as well as on the Art Ensemble Of Chicago's Fanfare for the Warriors. McCall is simply one of the most aware, gifted percussionists now playing; J.B. Figi's comment that he can break your heart with a drum solo is worth repeating in connection with his performance on this lp. Braxton is living in Woodstock, recording for Arista, and working regularly, sometimes in the company of Smith and/or Jenkins. Richard Davis is now, as he was in 1971, one of the two or three most in-demand bassists in New York. He recorded with Van Morrison not long before the CCC's concert, and has continued to work with artists as diverse as Phil Woods and Teresa Brewer. He contributed immeasurably to this music; in 1971 he was one of the few bassists in New York who could have done so. Richard Davis is currently signed to Muse Records.

The strongest, most lasting contemporary improvisational music has been made by working groups, from the Coleman and Coltrane quartets and Sun Ra's Arkestra through Ayler's trio and quartet, Cherry's European band, Cecil Taylor's Unit, and the Art Ensemble. Three Compositions and Anthony Braxton (Byg, Actuel 15), which represent early and middle-period Creative Construction Company respectively, have long been placed in the major leagues of the new music by those fortunate enough to possess playable copies. Now, finally, we have late CCC music available on record and, quite naturally, it's the real stuff.

Robert Palmer
July, 1975


RECORDING SUPERVISOR: ORNETTE COLEMAN
RECORDED AT: WASHINGTON SQUARE METHODIST CHURCH (PEACE CHURCH NYC)
CONCERT PRODUCTION: GEORGE CONLEY
RECORDING ENGINEER: ORVILLE O'BRIAN
COVER PAINTING BY: P. GIVENS
Art Direction: Hal Wilson

Monday, September 1, 2008

Stanley Cowell- Regeneration (1976)


"kora, piano, synthesizer, mbira, water drum, parade drum, wooden fife, wooden flute, snare drum, ride cymbal, gembhre, acoustic guitar, bass drum, Ibo chanting, mama-lekimbe, bass, harmonica, acoustic bass, zuna, alto flute, Madagascan harp, vocals, and more."
-from the back cover


"And never stop your quest for truth
and always stand for right,
for you have gifts aplenty
inside your tiny frame,
and if you use them wisely,
Oh, my wee children,
all men will know your name."
-Lullaby


Stanley Cowell's album "Regeneration" was originally criticized for its "failure" to choose and stick with one genre, and it certainly does fail to do that. Something of a concept album, Cowell attempted to bring together members of the free jazz scene, traditional African musicians, and some more mainstream soul/jazz/pop artists to celebrate and regenerate the kind of musical miscegenation to which all of us as jazz fans are the happy beneficiaries. As a result it doesn't comfortably fit in any of these categories, and it was a bit too pop for the "out-there" scene's bearded weirdies, too out there for the mainstream, and too African for most everyone. Luckily times have changed, and if you don't feel this deep down in your soul I don't know what to say. It's a happy marriage, founded on love.

Enjoy!


=========================================================
[Original Liner Notes]


("We dedicate 'REGENERATION' to Moriah Venable-Hicks and to you, with much love. We hope it is a reflection of those special moments of our Ancestral Stream, manifesting beauty and diversity, transcending all things, taking us higher and higher.")
Stanley Cowell, Jerry Venable, Viki-Maimoun-McLaughlin, Lois Johnson, Carole Byard

Side A
1. TRYING TO FIND A WAY (Cowell-McLaughlin)
Ed Blackwell, water drum; Stanley Cowell, synthesizer & piano; Billy Higgins, snare drum & ride cymbal; Aleke Kanonu, bass drum; Jerry Venable, acoustic guitar; Glenda Barnes, Charles Fowlkes, vocals.

2. THE GEMBHRE (Billy Higgins)
Billy Higgins, gembhre; Nadi Quamar, mama-lekimbe, percussion; Stanley Cowell, kora; Bill Lee, bass.

3. SHIMMY SHEWOBBLE (Marion Brown)
Marion Brown, wooden fife; Ed Blackwell, parade drum; Billy Higgins, snare drum; Aleke Kanonu, bass drum.


Side B
1. THANK YOU MY PEOPLE (Cowell-Kanonu)
Ed Blackwell, miscellaneous percussion; Stanley Cowell, kora; Charles Fowlkes, electric bass; Jimmy Heath, soprano sax; Billy Higgins, miscellaneous percussion; Kareema, vocals; Bill Lee, acoustic bass; Aleke Kanonu, Ibo chanting; John Stubblefield, zuna; Psyche Wanzandae, flute.

2. TRAVELIN' MAN (Cowell-Fowlkes)
Marion Brown, wooden flute; Stanley Cowell, mbira (thumb piano); Charles Fowlkes, vocals; Jimmy Heath, flute; Billy Higgins, miscellaneous percussion; Kareema, vocals; Bill Lee, acoustic bass; Nadi Quamar, mama-lekimbe.

3. LULLABYE (Cowell-Venable-McLaughlin)
Stanley Cowell, kora; Charles Fowlkes, vocals; Jimmy Heath, alto flute; Billy Higgins, gembhre; Kareema, vocals; Bill Lee, acoustic bass; Nadi Quamar, Madagascan harp.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Lou Rawls- You're Good For Me (1968)


"What the fuck is a breakbeat?" -David Axelrod

So by now it's likely that you're aware of the prodigious producer/composer/arranger David Axelrod, who worked on a score of classic albums for Capitol from the mid-60s to the early 70s, and then released some great stuff under his own name, all of which is begrudgingly making its way back into print despite the opposition of the fat cats. If you are, you're likely also aware of his work with Lou Rawls, the greatest soul singer post-Sam Cooke. If you've never heard the music of either man then you're in for a treat.

"You're Good For Me" is the pinnacle of their creative relationship. By 1968 Axelrod and Rawls (along with arranger/conductor H.B. Barnum) had partnered on 5 albums, and everyone in the studio, in front of and behind the glass, is at the top of their game here. The band is tight and soulful while still maintaining a loose elegance. The strings and backup vocals are gorgeously lush and perfectly controlled. Mr. Rawls is essentially perfect, and the album, almost operatic in scope, coheres thematically and musically in a way rare for music in general, and ultra-rare in soul music. There is silk and there is grit, oboes and breakbeats. Take a listen; it's good for you.



=========================================================

[Original Liner Notes]

J.S. Bach didn't compose classics . . . they became as time rolled by.
L. Rawls became just a few years back - "LIVE!" . . . and he keeps on coming with a sound that applies to yesterday, speaks for today and promises tomorrow.
H.B. Barnum doesn't arrange and conduct backings for all eternity . . . it just so happens that they are.
D. Axelrod doesn't produce classic albums . . . time bestows that adjective (and it doesn't take long).

"Ol' Man River" found a 20th Century spokesman in young soul-singer Rawls. And that's how time keeps pace with the river . . . that's how a man called Rawls came to be the sundial of time and the vocal reflection of every river's timeless stone secrets. That's what these moments of refracted sound are all about - from Bach (and after) to Rawls (and before).

When it rolls upriver, it's about the eternal second of time when a thousand hearts in a thousand shirts proclaim to a thousand shirts in a thousand blouses that "You're Good For Me" and whisper in their daydreams "Baby I Could Be So Good At Lovin' You" . . . when "I Want To Hear It From You" moves the transient senses to a longing state of doubt.

(singer Lou Rawls echoes the heart's pulse . . . arranger-conductor H.B. Barnum provides the sympathetic horns of joy, strings of anguish and winds of blue which come from a lovin' man . . . producer David Axelrod oversees that it comes out living)

When it rolls downriver, time's eternity remains but the heart is outdistanced by the soul. It's the is of "Life Time" which takes you to "the highest mountain then brings you back down to earth" . . . way high from the "I'm Satisfied" satisfaction of painless good-times to the rung-out "Down Here on the Found" crimes from the time-beaten soul. It's "Ol' Man River" rolling North to South . . . there's the along-the-way ups-and-downs that sooner or even faster just empty into the Gulf and wait for one more ride.

(singer Lou Rawls whispers, bellows and talks plainly from a south-side soul that sings first-hand . . . arranger-conductor H.B. Barnum provides the flourishing horns of momentary triumph and the somber taps of defeat, the winds of searching and the gospel voices of hope . . . producer David Axelrod oversees that it all fits together and comes off real)

J.S. Bach - He said it for yesterday's eternity.

L. Rawls - Just as Bach counterpointed messages of meaning and beauty into imposing Masses and Passions, so it is today that Lou Rawls (with Barnum and Axelrod) counterbalances the naked ups-and-downs of passionate hearts and aching souls . . . so it is that Lou Rawls segues his vocal reflections into a shatteringly eloquent soul-suite of "Life Time," "Life Time Monologue" and "Ol' Man River," along with other songs that say.

(and that's how it is . . . it's just a matter of time and the "river of being" that is eternity)
-Dan Davis

Friday, May 2, 2008

Ayotunde Amtac Babtungi- Down Wid Apartheid (198?)


Reva-revolution for African Liba-liberation!

Hello there everyone. Sometimes you wake up in the morning and simply feel radical. Today was one of those days and in that spirit I decided to share something radical with my friends in cyberspace. This is something that I can pretty much guarantee you will never find elsewhere. Go ahead, put his name into Google, and unless this single blog post changes things, you should come back with only one (that's right, 1) nonsensical entry. Unfortunately I don't know anything more about him either. I first picked this up because, hey, really, how often do you see dub poetry records in the bins?

My interest was piqued further by the backing band....some of those names looked familiar. And on side B was a name I definitely recognized, Bongo Herman, a great roots percussionist appearing with everyone from the Abyssinians to Yabby You. Check out the list. Some further research reveals that several other members of the group show up on the 80s Burning Spear albums.

Needless to say, the sound is tight, and reminds me somewhat of the mid 80s Roots Radics lineup. The poetry is forceful. Each side versions into the version. Whether you like the digi riddims, the political poetry, or hate apartheid, you should download this one, dig?

Radical!


=========================================================

[Original Liner Notes]
Rochester, N.Y.
August, 1986
My Dear Brother, Ayotunde Amtac Babatungi:

What can I say! I am deeply moved by the ancestral power of your pen. It is important that your work be read before our people. Your poetry, like the music of your kinsman, Marley, is of power and prophetic.

Ah! My brother, how the pathos of Paul Lawrence Dunbar rings through your dialectical verses. Continue to illuminate our perpetual struggle in that our great and pitiable people will see their God; their aim and their destiny.

Your words of struggle teared my eyes and rekindled my spirit. There in the clouds, I see a whole host of witnesses: Lumumba, Coltrane, Kenyatta, Malcolm, Dubois, King and many thousands gone, including the smiling face of Marcus Garvey, beaming at your work.

PAMOJA TUTASHINDA!

Together we will win!

Talik Abdul Basheer, Ph. D.


Side A
DOWN WID APARTHEID

Poet- AYOTUNDE AMTAC BABATUNGI
Rhythm Guitar- ANTHONY BRADSHAW
Bass- DEVON BRADSHAW
Drums- NELSON MILLER
Keyboards- LENFORD RICHARDS
Lead Guitar- LENFORD RICHARDS
Synthesizer- ASHER
Percussions- ALVIN HAUGHTON
Congos- ANTHONY BRADSHAW and EVON "LANCE" COLEMAN
Backing Vocals- AYOTUNDE AMTAC BABATUNGI
Engineers- CHRISTOPHER DALEY and MERVYN WILLIAMS

Side B
DEM AH SUFFAH TUH HELL

Poet- AYOTUNDE AMTAC BABATUNGI
Rhythm Guitar- ANTHONY BRADSHAW
Bass- DEVON BRADSHAW
Drums- CECIL HARDY
Keyboards- LENFORD RICHARDS
Lead Guitar- LENFORD RICHARDS
Synthesizer- ASHER
Percussions- ALVIN HAUGHTON
Congos- ANTHONY BRADSHAW, EVON "LANCE" COLEMAN and BONGO HERMAN
Backing Vocals- AYOTUNDE AMTAC BABATUNGI
Engineers- CHRISTOPHER DALEY and MERVYN WILLIAMS
Arrangements- ANTHONY BRADSHAW
Recorded and mixed at AQUARIUS STUDIO
PRODUCED BY AYOTUNDE AMTAC BABATUNGI
Photographer- LOUIS OUZER

Saturday, April 5, 2008

"El Rerre de los Palacios"/Pepe Martinez- Misa Gitana (Gypsy Mass) (196?)


I'm not quite in time for the feast of the epiphany, but I figure the wise men are loafing around awestruck for a few days anyway, so this will give them (and you) something nice to listen to.

Though consistently captivating I regret to say that the music of southern Spain is one of those things that I haven't yet put forth the effort to learn much about. For me it's still in the realm of things that sound strange and enthralling, and this record was one of those finds that was too good to pass up. Somber, reverent, and passionately intense throughout, with no other clues at all you can recognize this as religious music. In the liner notes I even detect an uneasiness with the fact that this particular music was likely religious before the conversion of Spanish gypsies to Islam, let alone Catholicism.

A quick wikipedia search reveals that the guitarist (Pepe Martinez) was considered one of the finest of his generation, and his performance here does not disappoint. "Rerre de los Palacios," the cantaor here, recorded more than 40 albums, and wrote the lyrics to many of them himself. If you read Spanish you can check out his obituary here. The choir is great, and they're no slouches with the percussion either.

Enjoy friends!

=========================================================

[Original Liner Notes]

Hymns in praise of God, Our Lord and Creator, have been composed in every language of the earth, yet the Divine Sacrifice of the Passion of Jesus Christ, revived for us every day upon the altar, has been interpreted according to a host of different styles, even within the same language. The map of Spain offers such a variety of traditional customs and contrasting features of pronunciation, that one could easily classify them into Masses reflecting the characteristics of each region, considering that the liturgical chants used in the different areas have their own particular intonation and cadence, although remaining perfectly orthodox in their basic form. In Andalusia, for example, we have the endless chain of Masses, celebrated from early on Whit Sunday morning in the Shrine of the Virgin del Rocio, in which each of the gypsy pilgrim brotherhoods plays a part, represented by its most genuine songs and "coplas", adorned with fervent twists of their own, which however extra-liturgical they may be, nevertheless express deep and sincere religious devotion. It was in fact this circumstance which led us to make a recording of the Andalusian Mass, here described as "Gypsy", precisely because authentic gypsy musicians and artists have been responsible for the integral execution of all its different parts. So long as we may be certain of having aroused the spiritual devotion of those for whom this makes it easier to come into contact with God and raised their minds to praise Our Creator, then it is more than sufficient reward for the efforts that went into the completion of this recording.

Words: ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ-BUZON
Singer: "EL RERRE DE LOS PALACIOS"
Guitar: PEPE MARTINEZ
Choir: "VIRGEN DE LOS REYES DE SAN JUAN DE AZNALFARACHE"
Artistic Director: MAESTRO CISNEROS

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Güito y Su Conjunto featuring the Al Gonzalez Trio- El Rumbon (196?)


Hello my people. Today's offering is a real cooker. I can imagine my grandfather in '65 or so, nervous, navigating his way into a downtown record store and timidly asking the clerk if he had anything spicy that would help him to practice his cha cha with the wife. Well my friend- this is just the thing.

Likely your salsa does not lack spice, or soul, or funk, because we are the lucky beneficiaries of a generation or two of hep cats separating the wheat from the chaff. This album, however, hearkens back to a time when most everything marketed towards the English-speaking market was drenched in cheese. This is one of those rare exceptions.

First of all, the band is smoking. Everyone on this record is feeling it. Just listen to the percussion intro on Tombola, listen to how everyone switches things up midway through No Me Molesto, listen to the soulful vocal (and the satisfying lyrical twist) on Intención Cobarde. Don't get me started on the eponymous "jam session" El Rumbon. Timbales, congas, flutes, a güiro- and in case the standard Afro-Caribbean fare isn't enough for you- clarinets, barnyard animals, and a celesta! (or a clavichord? or some other kind of tiny piano?).

I'm not Margaret, but I wish I were, because I'm sure Mr. Gonzalez is a tender, rhythmic lover.

Cha cha cha!


=========================================================

[Original Liner Notes]

There's something about free-wheeling music that grabs and tickles and thrills. Most often the joy comes from the sound and the sensitivity of musicians relating in ad lib fashion to eash others' messages and passages. It's the incredible pleasure that comes from a RUMBON (it was called a jam-session in jazz circles) where the fury of performance is unchecked. It's that kind of pleasure that comes from the combination of sounds and rhythms, melodies and tempos in this first album from Guito y Su Conjunto, featuring the Al Gonzalez Trio.

There is a collection of new song and familiar one presented here. There is a wide variety of approach to each. The title song, Rumbon Session, is a complete improvisation which happened during recording. It's all included here in its very natural result, unpolished, unstained, uninhibited. The musicians are anonymous.

Granada is performed here with a definite and simple beat. Guantanamera is played by the group in guajira tempo with a modern touch. Listen to La Comadrita. It is typical music from Puerto Rico and if you are ever down there you'll hear and see it performed at all the country dances. Add another happy sound. This one is called Tombola. It swings to a mixture of Latin and Rock rhythms.

There are other songs and sounds and stirrings. There is a hum and buzz and brightness that reaches a fine standard of achievement. Guito's vocals and the pulsating beat behind him will keep you dancing.

EL RUMBON...he aquí una complilación de melodías, ritmos y sonidos a cargo de Güito y su Conjunto con el trio de Al Gonzalez. No dudamos que cada una de las selecciones musicales en éste álbum brindarán recuerdos pasados además de momentos alegres en el presente; melodias revestidas simple y diferentemente...una colección de antiguas pero bien conocidas canciones tales como Guantanamera, Granada, Vereda Tropical, todas interpretadas en forma sencilla.

Güito y su Conjunto demuestran su versatilidad al interpretar EL RUMBON por ser éste tema en el cual se destacan todos y cada uno de los miembros de esta agrupación en forma arrolladora y exitante.

Lewdisc Internacional orgullosamente les invita a bailar con éste disco de larfa duración que llamamos...EL RUMBON.

A RALPH SEIJO PRODUCTION


LADO A
Guantanamera- 2:28
Granada (A. Lara)- 3:13
Como Se Baila- 2:52
Paisaje (A. Gonzalez)- 3:31
El Parrandero (A. Gonzalez)- 2:49
Tombola- 2:41

LADO B
No Me Molestes- 3:20
Vereda Tropical (G. Curiel)- 2:36
Intención Cobarde (A. Gonzalez) Vocal: Alicia de Cordova- 3:32
La Comadrita (A. Gonzalez)- 2:59
El Rumbon (Ralph Seijo)- 5:00

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Boyd McCoy- Got To Give A Little/1000 People (197?)



Boyd McCoy seems to be somewhat legendary. Like the chimera, he may be a little too outlandish to have ever existed in the first place. I'm proud to say he hails from my hometown of Rochester, New York, though beyond that I can discover next to nothing about him. He's not in the phone book. The elitist record store guy downtown was embarrassed when I brought him up, and didn't know anything about him artistically or personally. I know he released a couple of LPs that Japanese and British dealers want stupid money for.

That brings us to this ultra-rare offering- a chunky little nugget of white soul that has soul. You'll hear. Released on Funky Records (also of Rochester, and seemingly an imprint of Kama Sutra, which I think was an imprint of Buddha), these two sides have a lot working against them. Luckily, what they lack in polish, pitch, and native ability, everyone on this record makes up for with ass-kicking enthusiasm. Nobody on these tracks is giving less than 100 percent- not the drummer, not the back-up singers, not Mr. McCoy himself, and certainly not the fucking bassist. Oh aspiring musicians: This is the Way to make Music.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Oliver Lake- Ntu: Point From Which Creation Begins (1971)



Recorded in St. Louis in 1971 and released on Arista Freedom in 1976, this new thing killer is, like most of Lake's work, regrettably underheard.

[From AllMusic]
Oliver Lake is an explosively unpredictable soloist, somewhat akin to Eric Dolphy in the ultra-nimble manner in which he traverses the full range of his main horn, the alto. Lake's astringent saxophone sound is his trademark -- piercing, bluesy, and biting in the manner of a Maceo Parker, it was a perfect lead voice for the World Saxophone Quartet, the band with which Lake has made his most enduring mark on jazz.

[From PEN America]
Musician, poet, painter, and performance artist, Oliver Lake has created chamber pieces for the Arditti and Flux String Quartets; arranged music for Bjork, Lou Reed, and A Tribe Called Quest; and collaborated with poets Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange, choreographers Ron Brown and Marlies Yearby, and actress/author Anna Deavere Smith. He has done jazz-poetry collaborations with Huang Xiang since 2004.

I'll leave the description of the album to the the man himself, but expect more from Lake and his BAG and Human Arts Ensemble contemporaries to be posted soon. Ntu: The Point From Which The Creation of Botched Surgery Begins.


[Original Liner Notes]
SEPARATION

first it's the salad
    then the meat
        then the vegetables. . . .
                                "WAIT"

bring all my food at one time on the same plate!
dixieland, be-bop, soul, rhythm & blues, cool school, swing, avant-
garde, jazz, free jazz, rock, jazz-rock

WHAT KINDA MUSIC YOU PLAY?
                                "GOOD KIND"

Aretha franklin & Sun Ra is the same folks,
Coltrane & the Dixie humming birds same folks,
Miles & muddy waters same. there is no................there is no................

                LABELS DIVIDE! SEPARATE
                THE ORAL AND THE LITERARY

One music-diff feelings & experience, but same....the total
sound-mass sound-hear all the players as one

        THE HISTORY OF AFRICA WAS MEMORIZED, LIVED, EXPERIENCED, NOWED!
         "WE DIDN'T READ IT WE DID IT!"


oral-literary;
                       oral-
                        do
                         experience,
                          improvise,
                           adjust,
                            create

literary-
                       catalog,
                         label,
                         divide,
                          read,
                           interpret,
                            criticize,

        NO SEPARATION-Yeah, don't put me in no bag...
i'm open, may do anything     PUT ALL MY FOOD ON THE SAME PLATE!
    AFRICAN concept of color....
          if it has light, it's yellow

                                NO SUBTLETIES
    he must be colorblind      NO WAY! rt. picasso?
read da music! play the music! create the music, read the music
Can u read music? naw, it's best jest to create it & play it
that's more direct-t-t-t-t-t-t-t

=========================================================



SIDE ONE
Africa (Lake, Johnson) -12:57
Tse'lane (Baikida E.J. Carroll) -5:55

SIDE TWO
Electric Freedom Colors (Lake, Carroll) -6:24
Eriee (Lake) -7:40
Zip (Lake) -4:40

Oliver Lake: Alto sax, soprano sax, flute, small instruments
Baikida E.J. Carroll: Trumpet, small instruments
Floyd LeFlore: Trumpet, small instruments
Joseph Bowie: Trombone, small instruments
Richard Martin: Guitar
John Hicks: Piano
Clovis Bordeux: Electric Piano
Don Officer: Electric Bass
Charles Bobo Shaw: Drums
Don Moye: Conga