Marion Brown - Porto Novo

I don't do this very often (mainly because I don't have superduper hi-fi equipment), but here's an out of print album for download.

It's Porto Novo, by Marion Brown, and it's ripped from my LP at 192 kbps.

The sound engineering on the LP itself is slightly strange, really amping up Bennink's drums (I'm guessing the guy was more used to dealing with rock/pop musicians than the likes of Han), but at the same time giving them a really strange, off-kilter quality that's hard to describe. I think Chris Corsano (of the Flowers-Corsano duo) calls it "fucked-up."

It's a fascinating record, one of the strongest examples of Brown's 'purer' free jazz style (before he began to move towards more lyrical explorations with the likes of 'Sweet Earth Flying' and 'Vista', and, eventually, straightahead jazz (on 'Live in Japan' and 'November Cotton Flower')). Good as his albums for ESP-disk are, and good as 'Three for Shepp', on Impulse, is, they don't hold a candle to this one.

Altena's none too well-served by the aforementioned sound engineering (in the trio passages, it's Bennink and Brown who dominate), but, when he gets the chance to solo, he's heard to good effect, often producing sounds one would tend to associate more with avant-garde classical music than with jazz.

Bennink has moved on a heck of a long way from the somewhat edgy straight jazzer trying to keep up with Eric Dolphy on 'Last Date': he sounds propulsive, confident, brash, energetic, without cluttering the music. His playing here isn't quite up to Sunny Murray levels of cymbal-splash noise-bash (and isn't trying to be); neither is it the Rashied-Ali magic carpet colouristic approach, but HB's own maverick kineticism.

And Brown? Well, despite his neglect, he was certainly as good an improviser the better-known 'New Thing' musicians Shepp and Sanders. All along though, he wasn't so much 'New Thing' as into his own thing - a good dose of classical influence, an interest in ethnic musics (which, admittedly, Sanders and Shepp shared), and, above all, a sparer approach than the other two musicians. Whereas Shepp and Sanders were well capable of emoting to great effect (the prelude section to 'Creator has a Master Plan', or Shepp's gorgeous, impressionistic reading of 'In a Sentimental Mood' (from 'On this Night', 1965)), Brown was more understated, relying on the carefully chosen phrase, on clear motivic development rather than the pure sound/smear/scream tactic. Listen to the phrase he plays in 'Improvisation' (which also crops up in his solo on one of the other tracks). Just perfect.

I won't bother with track-by-track analysis: you can find that out for yourself. And some of these tracks were posted (in a cleaner rip) on the destination...out blog a while back. But I thought people who haven't had the chance might like to hear the whole album.

Here's the link, then. Info and scans included with the music.

http://sharebee.com/842f497d

The Cambridge Free Improvisation Society - Miracle of the Sun (2008)

Just under a month ago, I posted about material by the Cambridge Free Improvisation Society, which was being made available on the internet, and briefly mentioned the album 'Miracle of the Sun', which can be streamed from the CFIS' Last FM page. However, as that page doesn't seem to be getting any listeners, I thought I'd make it easier for people to get hold of this stuff, and am putting up a download link.

The Cabmbridge Free Improvisation Society - Miracle of the Sun

Jacken Waters - electric guitar/ effects
Dan Larwood - electric guitar with delay pedal
David Grundy - laptop, piano, recorder, radio

Recorded at Robinson College, Cambridge
6th February 2008
192 kbps/ 96.7 MB

Get it here! (artwork at top of post)
http://www.mediafire.com/?ydcy9xthxgy

Music with liberal doses of guitar feedback! Please leave written feedback too!

The Cambridge Free Improvisation Society

The Cambridge Free Improvisation Society is an informal musical collective whose members are students at Cambridge University. We gather to freely improvise during sessions which are held on and off during Term times. We have performed occasional concerts and, for the past few months, have been recording the irregular jam sessions we hold in various college music rooms. Selections of these recordings are now being made available online, including 'Miracle of the Sun', an hour-long improvisation which will be available in CD-R form at gigs or on request.

The following material is now available online. Feedback is welcome, and indeed encouraged!

A selection of excerpts from various improvisations recorded over the past few months can be heard at
http://cambridgeimprovisation.wordpress.com/
http://www.myspace.com/cambridgeimprovisation http://www.soundclick.com/thecambridgefreeimprovisationsociety
the album 'Miracle of the Sun' can be downloaded and listened to in full from http://www.last.fm/music/The+Cambridge+Free+Improvisation+Society
Members of the society featured in these performances are: Joe Scott (trombone) Jo Davis (flute) Dan Larwood, Jacken Waters (guitar, effects) David Grundy (piano, laptop, recorder)

There's a Trumpet in My Soul

Thought I'd put some music up today - this is an LP rip of Archie Shepp's 1976 album 'There's a Trumpet in My Soul', released on Freedom Records. In terms of accessibility, it falls somewhere between the more mainstream approach of 'Attica Blues' and 'The Cry of My People' and the avant-garde experimentaiton of 'New Thing at Newport' or 'Live at Antibes'. It's not a perfect record (what is?), but is definitely worth a listen. (I've posted a more detailed review below).

Here's the (updated) download link.

And if you want to buy Archie Shepp music, go here:
http://www.archieshepp.com/cdorders.html



ARCHIE SHEPP: THERE’S A TRUMPET IN MY SOUL
Freedom Records, 1976

Archie Shepp: tenor and soprano sax
Semenya McCord, Bill Willingham: vocals
Bill Hasson: poem recitation
Roy Burrowes, Alden Griggs: trumpet, flugelhorn
Charles Majid Greenlee: trombone
Ray Draper: tuba
Walter Davis, Jr.: electric piano
Dave Burrell: piano
Brandon Ross: guitar
Jimmy Garrison, Vishnu Wood: bass
Beaver Harris: drums
Nene Defense, Zahir Batin: percussion

One of Coltrane’s foremost disciples, and a leading force in the ‘new wave’ of 1960s and 70s Free Jazz, Shepp always had his foot firmly in the traditional camp as well (for example, his duets with Horace Parlan). In fact, I’ve read him described as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, and, in his older years, he has started to sound more and more like Ben Webster. There’s a good balance of his lyrical and exploratory sides here. The record opens with a ‘suite’: first, the title track, sung with breathtaking purity by Semenya McCord, who is at first accompanied by just acoustic guitar; Shepp then comes in for the brief, and utterly wonderful, Samba da Rua (which shows just how good his lyrical playing can be), before Zaid, Part 1, ups the heat a notch. Driven on by a propulsive piano riff, Shepp is given ample opportunity to stretch out on tenor, before a trombone solo fades out and something weird happens. Shepp had previously done an ironic (and not entirely successful) cover of Jobim’s ‘Girl from Ipanema’ on ‘Fire Music’, but here, he offers up a seemingly straight bossa-nova/popish song on which he plays soprano saxophone (with a light, creamy tone), and Bill Willingham offers some smooth and effortless vocals. It’s hard to know what to make of this (hardly the sort of thing you expect from one of the leaders of the avant-garde) but it’s very pleasant listening, and it works a treat (better than much of the original bossa nova!).

The second half of the ‘There’s a trumpet in my soul’ suite picks up Zaid again, runs with it for fourteen minutes, segues into a poem, declaimed with appropriately stern seriousness by Bill Hasson (‘It is the year of the rabbit…’), and then ends with a final smattering of Zaid. Shepp’s playing is certainly ferocious on the driving group textures of Zaid (divided into three parts to split up the intensity, which certainly accounts for an easier listening experience, though whether or not it’s a more rewarding one is debatable), and he has some fine support. The texture can sometimes get a bit muddy (not sure how good an idea it was to have both the acoustic and electric pianos playing together). All in all, though, it’s fine stuff; in fact, it might be a good place to start for the uninitiated.