Showing posts with label new thing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new thing. Show all posts

Friday, April 17, 2009

The Revolutionary Ensemble - Psyche



The RE were:


Sirone - Bass

Leroy Jenkins - Violin, Viola
Jerome Cooper - Piano, Drums


"The Revolutionary Ensemble were an extraordinary trio who unfortunately has a very limited discography, and what they did record is rather difficult to find. The Psyche is a case in point, released in 1975 on the small, self-produced RE: Records label and, as of 2002, unavailable on disc. It's a superb performance, however, consisting of three compositions, one by each group member, and can serve as a microcosm of what the band was about. Drummer Jerome Cooper was always the most concerned with extended and complex compositions. His lengthy "Invasion," which occupies side one of the album, is an episodic suite where the solos are integral to the piece's structure, not simply improvisations spun off of riffs. Even with the "limited" palette of violin, bass, and percussion (plus the composer on piano for a bit), Cooper is able to conjure forth a unique and fascinating sound world allowing both a clear exposition of his ideas as well as offering the personalities of the musicians to shine. Leroy Jenkins, the most soulful and bluesy of avant-garde jazz violinists, takes special advantage here in his extremely lovely solo feature. Sirone's "Hu-Man" is a freewheeling piece with an implied cadence as natural as rolling down a hill, but also with a melancholy theme once again driving directly to Jenkins' strength as he wrenches out another powerful, blues-drenched solo. Jenkins' own "Collegno" is a gorgeous and delicate work, giving lie to the notion that bands like this were only about screeching. Using the lightest of frameworks, the trio limns an exceedingly fine tracery of clearly etched yet breathtakingly fragile improvisations, never drifting very far from the feeling established at the outset until Sirone embarks on an arco solo that may threaten the integrity of one's woofers. The Psyche is a very fine recording by a wonderful and underrecorded trio; snatch it up if you're lucky enough to come across it."

Hu Man

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Archie Shepp - Blase

More top notch Archie Shepp sessions. Lineup on this one:

Lester Bowie: Trumpet
Dave Burrell: Piano
Philly Joe Jones: Drums
Julio Finn: Harp
Chicago Beau: Harp
Jeanne Lee: Voice
Archie Shepp: Tenor Saxophone

Fiyah

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Archie Shepp - Mama Too Tight


Request by Chokobert, partner in crime and co-creator of the Sun Ra Juice. About Archie: the man played on "Ascension". Nuff said.

Lineup:

Grachan Monchur III
Roswell Rudd
Perry Robinson
Charlie Haden
Howard Johnson
Tommy Turrentine
Beaver Harris

Cop it

Pharoah Sanders - Tauhid

The master at work, in one of his finest albums. With Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell, Henry Grimes, Roger Blank and Ned Bettis. Info about the legend here.

Auuuummm

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Complete Science Fiction Sessions


Props to Abe for posting Don Cherry's classic "Brown Rice". Now I give you another classic from one of the people that turned jazz on its head and on whose seminal quartet Cherry played, Ornette Coleman. These are the complete Science Fiction sessions from 1972. Cherry plays here, in different configurations, along with Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins (the other two parts of the original quartet), Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell among others. A essential introduction to harmolodics and Ornette at his most ambitious.


Part 1

Part 2


And a bonus: Ornette live at Stockholm, in a trio with David Izenzon and Charles Moffett.




Part 1

Part 2