Cecil Taylor - 1974 - Silent Tongues

 

If I can describe this year in one word then that word would be: traveling. I did a lot of travels and a lot of those travels were by car. Driving 500 to 600 kilometres in one day alone and free to listen to whatever I want for hours. Certainly I always had a soft spot for difficult music but these long drives allowed me to dedicate a lot more head space to it and enjoy it with new perspectives and refreshed vigor.

Cecil Taylor undoubtedly fits in this category of difficult music. Difficult to focus on, difficult to process, difficult to endure maybe but definitely easy to have a dismissive opinion on it. Over the years my favorite albums by him were albums where he had groups of musicians with him and solo albums I've tried maybe once but quickly passed on them. Conquistador definitely still is my favorite album by him, closely followed by the immense live album - Nefertiti but only recently I've grown to appreciate his solo albums. 

I've read descriptions of these albums as being more percussive than pianist. A statement that I can definitely understand and see where it comes from. From my perspective, which is a perspective of a dumb fucking elitist caveman metalhead, Cecils playing sounds to me like primordial versions of guitar solos that Trey Azagthoth did on Morbid Angel albums.

I get that this is a stretch and an unfair comparison but I hear it. Maybe I'm just crazy. But Cecils solo performances are never focused on structured playing - it is sculpting with sound. Textures and layers of sound, morphing into an infernal whirlwind of piano keys that rises and falls throughout the album as he sees or feels. Unbarred pure expression limited by very little. Kinda like the early extreme metal scene.

In any case this album definitely isn't for anyone but one day you might sit down and suddenly it'll all make sense and you'll enjoy it. For me it only took a 6 hour drive from Rijeka to Genoa - for you it will be something different. No shame in trying!

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Sun Ra - 1970 - Black Myth / Out In Space

These two concerts were recorded in Germany and from my understanding this was their first outing there. The albums kicks off with a unique track called Black Forest Myth and it is unique because the concert was held in Donaueschingen which is in the actual Black Forest of Germany. The track sets a tone for the rest of the gig which is darkly energetic. There are very few melodic breaks here and the whole gig is filled with really fiery and intense saxophone solos often lightly accompanied by other instruments. Often times you will get two saxophones battling it out while everything else is dormant until the moment ends and the gate opens for an incredible rush of percussion and Sun Ra's electronic keyboards. You can hear multiple audible "BOO" which is understandable, this really was an uncompromising live show. I said a lot of "YEAH" while I was listening to it though.

The second recording, Out In Space, was recorded in Berlin also on the same tour. This one seems much more cheerful and warmer than the eerie first one. Maybe because the place wasn't called so ominously, to the band at least. Probably the star of this concert is the opening 30 minute mammoth track featuring some unusual instruments that slowly unravel the composition as it goes on until it fully blossoms into a raging fire of series of improvisations both by Sun Ra and his fellow band members. Aside from being more approachable it also contains my all time favorite composition by Sun Ra which is Watusa (or Watusi, depends on recording) a track that features primarily drums and a million other percussive instruments. It's a composition that starts with a really hectic riff that quickly swirls into a whirlwind of drums and then just goes wild with every imaginable percussive instrument. But on here it lasts mere 2 and half minutes so it's tolerable to those who don't like it and unbearable to me who does like it!

CD1 and CD2

Sun Ra - Horizon

Sun Ra's venture into Egypt is well known among fans and more casual listeners. The most known release from that venture was the collaboration with Salah Ragab who was a prominent jazz figure in Egypt. There are other recordings of concerts from that tour that did not feature Salah Ragab and Horizon is one of those recordings.

I'll be frank this isn't an easy listen, most of this recording is either free jazz or really disjointed but if you like that sort of thing I think you'll like it because the band is absolutely on fire here. The album starts with a short introduction and then moves to a lengthy free jazz soloing and exposition featuring Sun Ra solos and also a saxophone solo. After about 20 minutes of free form playing the band shifts into a more friendlier sound and goes on to play some of its famous compositions like Space is The Place. After some jamming and overall excellent melodic grooves the band switches back into the final and more bombastic free jazz form with ridiculously fierce sax solos accompanied by brooding brass sections ominously playing in the back. After those diddly dads the album ends with the band talking to the audience in a very characteristic Sun Ra manner ("we'll wait for you in another woooooooooooooorlllddddd") and then they blast into my second most liked Sun Ra track which is The Satellites are Spinning that goes on for 11 minutes accompanied by claps from the audience and loose sax soloing.

Basically what you get here is a fully packaged Sun Ra live performance. There's a bit of everything from their career up to that point (1971) but there's definitely an emphasis on more free forms rather than on more structured jazz. I myself really enjoy this recording but I'm not sure if it's for everyone though!

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John Coltrane - The Village Vanguard Tapes

[If you haven't heard anything from Coltrane prior to this you can still enjoy it but I'd recommend starting with his more (or most?) famous works. In short, check out these albums in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.]

Arguably all jazz albums are "live" albums but studios still are a bit different from a proper live setting. The Village Vanguard tapes/recordings have a long and detailed background behind them and for a good reason too. I'm not going to elaborate all the minute details because you can find it all in the booklet provided with the songs so if you're interested just read it from there.

Personally I think Coltrane and his group were at their absolute prime here (1961) and whenever I want to hear some live Coltrane concerts I usually drift back to these recordings. This was a period for Coltrane where he was done with conventional jazz for the most part and was starting to shape into his more infamous free jazz form. So I'd say this was the time where you get still great conventional jazz but in a much more relaxed (rules-wise) and creative form. Probably the best thing with these recordings is that the tracks themselves are long as fuck. Considering how Coltrane always had millions of ideas at the same time this live setting gives him breathing room to play them all out compared to a studio album which would certainly limit this kind of creativity. A lot of the songs were augmented with additional players of which Eric Dolphy is the most known these days. This engagement, from what I've read, sparked a lot of hate that came from jazz classicists (purists or whatever) calling this anti-jazz but as time went on they were rightfully proven wrong. Coltrane and a lot of the free jazz crew got a lot of flak like that simply because they had different ideas of what jazz is and could be. Nowadays calling Coltrane an anti-jazz musician is absurd but people then were less receptive to more dissonant music I assume because a lot of them lived or were born during the heyday of swing and Dixie jazz.

While I enjoy all the tracks that are on these recordings I still have some issues with it. My main problem is that sometimes the recordings get unbalanced so you have parts that are dominant on the left or right speaker while the other side is either really low or silent. This can potentially ruin the experience but luckily it does not happen often and it doesn't last that long (still it made me snap out of the music when it did happen).

My other issue might come off a little controversial or pretentious but hear me out (or just skip to the links). I'm a fan of Dolphy and I enjoy his works (Out To Lunch and Out There being my favorites) but unfortunately on these recordings I didn't particularly like his solos or him being added at all. This is just a personal preference because he plays his parts with exceptional technicality but whenever he jumps into a solo it feels so tacked on and unnecessary for me. Coltrane plays his solo parts for a very long time and Dolphy, usually coming in after Coltrane, sounds comparatively weaker and out of place for me. It might be because he's using the bass clarinet for the most part and its sound I do not find fitting in the classic Coltrane quartet.

In summary this is a great live setting and a great live recording that bore us a lot of excellent material. I have two "versions" of this but not the complete version which is this one.

What I do have are the master takes which you can get here.

And I also have something called "The Other Village Vanguard Tapes" that were originally released in 1976. It's a two CD set that features different versions of the tracks from the master takes in a even more longer fashion and also some extra tracks that weren't featured (one being a traditional song called Greensleeves).

Here's the CD1 and CD2

I recommend getting both!

Ono Ryoko - Undine

Hi. Err, I'll just act like I wasn't gone forever and keep on posting.

If there's one thing I hate in music it's albums that I can't decide if I like them or not. Undine is a prime example of this totally serious and important struggle that I keep having in my important and totally serious life. On paper this album should be everything that I like in music. A female saxophonist from Japan that plays in all kinds of bands and also does solo free jazz in her spare time oh and she also plays with Tatsuya Yoshida in Sax Ruins (which sounds as exactly as it's called). What's not to like? But every time I start this album I can't help but to wonder why I haven't trashed (recycle-binned?) it already. The problem is that the album starts with such weak a boring sax doodles coupled with extremely uninteresting electronic drumming that it makes me skip the whole album altogether. Eventually after those few tracks the album goes on in a more traditional sense with multiple sax improv tracks but it's nothing really groundbreaking or original (at least from my layman knowledge perspective). Then a comes along a track called Birds which is a vocal/sax duo rendition of a famous Charlie Parker tune and after that the album keeps getting better and better with much more imagination. But the best track comes near the end titled Tarkus. It's a cover song of a famous prog track (if you haven't heard it you definitely should) but boy does it go wild and furious. It's also played by a full band which makes it so much more interesting than the rest of this album. So yeah, the only real reason why I keep this album is probably because of that cover song, it's just that great.

Not only is it a great track but it also shows how much Ono Ryoko is great at her playing. Seems like (for now) she works best in a band setting. From what I gather she's relatively new in the scene and is just getting more renown so there's lots of time for improvement on her solo stuff.

Check it out at least for that one song I keep talking about.

Get.

David Murray - Home

David Murray might not be among the best known jazz musicians out there but everyone who know about him seems to love him. Murray has his roots in free jazz but overall I wouldn't categorize him in one single sub-genre of jazz because he tends to experiment a lot with personnel and style. He often switches between octets, big bands, quartets etc. so there is always something interesting and new with each record.

Home is a particular favorite of mine from what I have heard of his work so far. The album was released back in 1981 with an octet. The recording is a loveable mix of swing, bebop and free jazz and it starts wonderfully with a blues piece aptly named Home as it invokes a very nostalgic feeling. It's melodic and it's soothing but as the album progresses from song to song it just gets wilder and wilder. The chains break free but not fully as there is always a stable rhythm section that back the whole thing up. There are coherent choruses and riffs but the solos and some chords are often dissonant and aggressive. Often you will find places in this album where a rhythm section plays this modern type of swing, the saxophones play two different (but intertwined) solos while the piano blasts some strange dissonant chords. It all comes together beautifully and daring. It's as if you got together a really old swing group that's just tired of playing the same songs over and over so they just go wild.


Absolutely love this album. Check it out!

Get it.

Andrew Hill - Black Fire

Of all the albums that Andrew Hill released this is probably my most favorite one. Everything that Andrew Hill is about shines here so well. Not only is he good on this album but everyone else who participated on it. Joe Henderson (who's on saxophone here) is probably the star of the show. His expressive yet very structured play fits very well with Andrews own piano skills. This is probably most evident on the title track, Black Fire, where they both play in unison the chorus of the song.

The album itself is considered free jazz but it's actually very well structured. There's no free exploration here, it might sound free to some due to strange time signatures and unusual keys that they play (mostly major, I think?) so the album tends to sound cold and machine like. But I find a lot of beauty and energy in it. It's as if they're trying to play regular bebop but as it goes on it gets more fierce and it tries to break free of its limitations.

All in all a great and interesting album. Even if you're not that big on free jazz (or just getting into it) you might enjoy this.

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Zippyshare link.

Fav. track.

Jooklo Duo - The Warrior

I was planning to write a few posts today but I got trashed so hard with whiskey yesterday that I can't even write or think. I'll write this short one because I'm so edgy.

This little seven inch record was released back in 2010 and it was made by an Italian duo consisting of a saxophone player and a drummer. Let the shortness of this record fool you not for they are so intense that they will leave you flattened after the first listen. The sound itself can be accurately described as skinning something alive. At least the saxophone can be described like that. It sometimes gets so high that I wonder why their reeds haven't snapped yet.

Basically it's one of those free jazz records that you either like or not. You get raw power here and if you're not into that kind of stuff avoid this record.

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Kammerflimmer Kollektief - Absencen

This summer I shared a band called Bohren & Der Club Of Gore who are a quite known band for its genre. While I like Bohren and their sound they do tend to get kinda stale after a while. Lucky for us Germany seems to be a really good place for strange jazzy sombre bands and Kammerflimmer Kollektief is an excellent example of that.

Unlike Bohren though these guys tend to experiment with sounds a lot more often. Absencen was their fourth album released back in 2005 and they were ripping shit up. Perhaps the most positive side of this is that these guys are a lot more jazz oriented in playing. There are some really sweet solos and free jazz outbursts on this album but they also provide an ample supply of smooth melodies that we come to expect from bands like this. While the album is overall in darker tones it does not shy away from more playful and happier moments. There are some great "happier" songs here like Shibboleth or Unstet that offer some really nice soprano sax/guitar improvising and upbeat tempos. There also, of course, great sombre tracks like Nach dem Regen that remind me of rainy strolls through the city. There's a bit of everything here so it might feel a bit too random but after a few listens it all sinks in very well.

Generally speaking if you're looking for a modern jazz band that is not shackled in old school worship but also not too much in the free jazz area this might be right up your alley. It's a great mixture of experimental and orthodox with a lot of different instruments and approaches to atmosphere.

Check them out.

Cecil Taylor - Conquistador!

To many of us free jazz is something we usually avoid in long circles. Why people hate it or like is a debate of its own and I won't get into it. All I can say is that such music demands a lot from the listener. It demands attention and concentration but it rewards you with some of the most intense musical experiences in return. There's always something interesting to hear and notice each time you experience it but sometimes you just can't digest it at all if you're not in the mood for it.

Such is the case with this album as well. It was released in 1967 when this music was starting to get its momentum and a lot of people hated it or loved it or both at the same time. To me this record is perhaps one of the best free jazz records that I've heard so far. Cecil Taylor is the most intense piano player that I can think of and he absolutely destroys everything here. The energy exchanging between players is just as well intense and energetic but there are light moments here as well that serve as breathers and moments of more gentle sides that this music provides. Excellent stuff.

Download.