Recorded on February 18, 1978 at United/western Studios in Hollywood, California
Horace Tapscott has long been one of Los Angeles' great jazz legends but the pianist has not been documented that thoroughly throughout his productive career. Other than a big band set from the same period, this solo piano LP was his first full-length recording. On what was a slightly more conservative set than most of his dates, Tapscott performs just two of his originals (including "Mary on Sunday") plus selections by Samuel Browne, Cal Massey ("Bakai"), Lester Robertson, Jesse Sharps, Elmo Hope and Billy Strayhorn ("Lush Life"). A fine outing that, if it were in-print, could serve as a fairly accessible introduction to the masterful pianist.
One of the most ambitious albums ever from pianist Horace Tapscott – a double-length set that has him working with a large lineup of underground musicians from the 70s Los Angeles scene – all united in spirit and power as the Pan-African Peoples Arkestra! Tapscott's piano directs the group strongly – as an extension of the vision that he brought to the late 60s Sonny's Dream album by Sonny Criss – but the music is freer, more spiritual, and often graced with bursts of ensemble energy, balanced by some really tremendous solos from other musicians too!
Other than half an album cut in 1969 for Flying Dutchman (which was shared with the John Carter/Bobby Bradford group), this release was pianist Horace Tapscott's recording debut as a leader. Tapscott's Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (consisting of two pianos, six reeds, two trombones, Red Callender on tuba, cello, two basses, a drummer, and a percussionist) had an unusual sound and made three records during 1978-1979. The band performs five group originals; surprisingly none were written by the leader. While there are some individual solos (particularly by Tapscott), it is the dense and frequently exciting ensembles that are most notable in this avant-garde but rhythmic music.
This isn't really representative of Tapscott's own music. All the compositions are from members of the Arkestra and are generally odd. The music is unpredictable. The album starts with Tapscott playing piano by himself for almost 5 minutes, which keeps you guessing when the hell the group is going to do something. They finally jump in and "Flight 17" ends up splitting up the band. Some members play Free-Jazz while the others set up a recurring beat. Its kind of funny: not funny "ha ha" but funny-weird. That sort of hard-to-put-your-finger-on feeling applies for the whole recording. The Arkestra mixes so many styles of music from different cultures that the music is interesting but hard to completely enjoy. It's all very experimental, like Sun Ra meets Alice Coltrane. That sense of "under construction"...
Not your typical Tapscott fare. It reminds me a bit of some of Yusef Lateef's work with the "world music" influences. The only downside to this CD is that it is a needle drop, and though they found a pretty clean copy there are still a few ticks audible in quieter sections.
Horace Tapscott’s Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (P.A.P.A.) was one of the most transformative, forward-thinking and straight-up heavy big bands to have played jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. If P.A.P.A. doesn’t have the interstellar rep of that other famous Arkestra, and if the name Tapscott doesn’t ring bells like Monk or Tyner, there’s a reason why: in an industry dominated by record labels, a band that doesn’t record doesn’t count. And the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra didn’t record for nearly twenty years. But recording success was never their concern — they weren’t about that. First formed as the Underground Musicians Association in the early 1960s, Tapscott always wanted his group to be a community project.
From their base in Watts, UGMA got down at the grassroots. The group was renamed the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1971, and soon after they established a monthly residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ which ran for over a decade, while still playing all over LA and beyond. But they never released a note of music. It was the intervention of fan Tom Albach that finally got them on wax. Determined that their work should be documented, Albach founded Nimbus Records specifically to release the music of Tapscott, the Arkestra, and the individuals that comprised it. The first recording sessions in early 1978 yielded enough material for two albums, and the first release was Flight 17. The album commences with the magnificent title track. It is effectively in three parts. It begins with unaccompanied pianos. Then the ensemble embark on a dense, circular and mechanical movement, a platform for horns and pianos to swoop and dive. We return to Earth with a beautiful solitary flute. The second track, the piano-centric, ‘Breeze’ is different to ‘Flight 17’ in intensity and also brevity but it is quietly as daring as the title track. It concludes with a moving lush wash from the full Arkestra, which sound almost like strings only more substantial. These first two tracks take full advantage of the texture of the unusual mix of the various instruments. Next though, it’s a significant change with ‘Horacio’, which is an exuberant Latin infused jingle. It’s unlike anything else on the album. I like to think it was named after the conductor’s Cuban alter-ego! ‘Clarisse’ gracefully switches between slow blues and bop and is bookended with a grand vaguely East Asian theme. The busy bass line introduces ‘Maui’. As with the previous track, it moves between a number of contrasting melody lines and rhythms but there’s still space for a tuneful sax solo.
This is a must-have album. I think the first two tracks on their own make this release essential.
Fantastic LP, as are all by Tapscott. On the title track, Tapscott lays down this heavy heavy groove and carries the rest of the group along. It's just driving and he is pounding the keys. Not virtuosity on display, but pure emotion, althought there are plenty of examples here and on his other LP's where his abilities are on full display. The rest of the LP holds to the standard set on this track. I have yet to hear an LP led by him, be it solo piano, his drum/piano duets, trio, or his large ensembles releases that is not worth it's weight in gold.
There are very few musicians who can be turned towards to feel the beating heart of African-American ethos. Horace Tapscott is one of them. The blunt force with which he strikes piano keys is reminiscent of the hard edge in the deepest part of the blues. The angularity of his attack, which makes for a dramatic, slanted enunciation, also reminds the listener that the blues can also be beautiful and subtle. In Mr. Tapscott’s musicianship there is also the reminder that the blues swings and is ebullient as it proclaims the triumph of human endeavour, but it is also haunting as it traverses through all the pain of being black in America. This is why he always gave the feeling of being heraldic and served as a moral compass for musicians and listeners alike. Mr. Tapscott’s music produced an elemental ache in the heart of the listener just as much as it shaped the eventual joy that came from experiencing that melancholic thorn in the soul. Such was the power of Horace Tapscott’s music as it roamed the topography of African-American culture that it described the racism against a people in a brutal and unexpurgated way. But more than anything, more than the striking mirror it held up against society, it reflected the anguish of discrimination and the art that pronounced it.
Horace Tapscott’s seminal recording The Giant is Awakened was cause for celebration when it was first produced in 1969 by Bob Thiele and released on the Flying Dutchman imprint. And now, Jonathan Horwich and his International Phonograph Inc. have produced a brilliantly packaged re-issue. This is a project worthy of recognition all over again for all of the reasons mentioned earlier. But it is also worthy of remembering again for the genius of Mr. Tapscott’s writing. First of all, like all modern masters, the pianist shows his deep sense of history. He belongs to the finest tradition not only of pianists but also of musicians who held fast to unbridled excellence. “Fats” Waller—the genius he celebrates in his own composition entitled “Fats”—runs through his veins and spills out onto the keyboard. And like that other genius, Mr. Tapscott wastes no time on useless virtuosity. Each note is heartfelt, but is also precisely where it should be. This makes for the lean and sinewy manner in which his phrasing and also his lines excite the listener. His stories are also vivid: They can be ominous as in “The Giant is Awakened” and “The Dark Tree” and they can also be fantastic as they unfolded in a vivid, yet dreamlike manner, as in “Niger’s Theme”.
At a time when much music is thin on substance this record is a timely reminder that great music should never be forgotten. Unfortunately the record also comes at a time when John Coltrane’s Offering and Charles Lloyd’s Manhattan Stories are being lionized in the press. But The Giant is Awakened should not be allowed to pass like a ship in the night. Nor should the importance of Mr. Horwich’s endeavours be allowed to be in vain. This is and will always be an important record returning at an important but unfortunate time in the history of discrimination against the African-American Diaspora.
Hungarian pianist and composer Janos Gonda formed his sextet in 1972. On the album Semanenek (Shaman Song) the band combines elements of traditional and modern jazz with modern classic, ethnic styles or partly blues and swing. The used mostly archaic sounding ethnic styles, tibetan, west indies, afro, combined with voice and singing, generate a special spiritual depth. You can also find some free or nearly rock sequences. A pulsating, sensual and dramatic work.
This is not your usual jazz record. Janos Gonda is a leading figure since 1962 on the Hungarian jazz scene. His musical activity embraces a wide field; ranging from composing, through performing and from teaching to musical research. The GONDA SEXTET formed in 1972 and this influential album sidesteps from the special elements of european jazz to a more modern composed music, although the basic intonation of jazz remains present throughout the whole recording. "Shamanenek" (Shaman Song) is an exercise in style. Musical phrases influenced conceptually by ancient cultures flow everywhere; from ethnic elements to traditional jazz, modern composition, the blues, swing, free improvisation… all are inherent in the depths of the playing. The album's story is about the dramatic conflict of sensuality and spirituality in an ancient, cultic world. This is better symbolized in the opening track, where the choir of the Tibetan lamas dives into an oriental vocal solo, swept away by the entrance of a dialogue between fender electric piano and saxophone, slowly departing the archaic world and approaching 70ies European jazz stylings. Then come afro-cuban primeval rhythms, tribal percussive patterns from the islands of West Indies until the group reaches motives swinging upwards to suddenly fall like an avalanche and end the album in a rock influenced pulsation. In the closing section the playing ends in an upward arching eruption with sweeping dynamic. And this is the summation of the emotional and intellectual masterpiece of a record that "Samanenek" is: one of the most important east European jazz releases.
An incredible session from the legendary Tribe Records scene -- an equal effort from leader Doug Hammond and keyboardist David Durrah, who contributes some ground breaking Fender Rhodes and moog work to the set! Hammond handles drums plus a bit of vocals and synthesizer on the session -- working alongside Durrah in a groove that mixes electric and acoustic instrumentation into a totally righteous sound with lots of heavy Afro Jazz leanings. A number of tracks feature great vocals from Hammond -- righteous, and with a beautifully soulful message-oriented approach -- and a few other tracks, such as the classic "Space I" and "Space II", feature a sparer all-electric sound. The whole thing's wonderful -- skittishly rhythmic, warmly flowing, and righteously beautiful.
Seminal and much sought after Afro Jazz session recorded in Paris in 1979 featuring Senegalese percussionist Cheikh Tidiane, produced by Jean-Paul Rodrigue for his cult Freelance label.
The session combines Afro-centric percussion, the lyrical saxophone of Jo Maka (The Celestial Communication Orchestra) and regular Albert Ayler and Steve Lacy collaborator Bobby Few in a Parisian answer to Black Jazz and Strata East.
Flute, Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Charles Owens
Leader – Charles Owens
Percussion – Ricardo Torres
Tambourine – Bobby Thompson
Trombone – Thurman Green
Trumpet – Oscar Brashear
Vibraphone – Donald Moore (tracks: A3), Woody Murray
Saxophonist Charles Owens' career as a name jazzman began during 1968, when he attracted some attention as a sideman with Buddy Rich. Owens went from being an itinerant musician around the Boston area to playing with Buddy Rich in Las Vegas and continuing on for a three year stint which included a tour of Japan. Mongo Santamaria, who had heard Owens with Buddy Rich in Chicago, sent for Owens to join his band in New York. The looseness and rhythmic exotica in Mongo's group provided a valuable experience for Owens who also got a chance to bone up on his flute work. Owens began to make some headway in the studios of the Hollywood scene and began to build lasting relationships with many of the great musicians who would eventually grace his first solo album as a leader - dubbed Charles Owens Motherlode - "I Stand Alone," recorded in 1971.
Brother Ah / flute, French horn, harmonica, nayamka, shell horn
Nataska Hasan Yousef / vocals, gong, finger cymbals
Nasar Abadey / berimbau, drums, percussion
Jeff majors /harp, mbiri
Marvin Tuten / guitar
Mike Bowie / acoustic & electric basses
Barbara Burton-Tuten, Valerie Yarborough / percussion
Recorded at Track Records, Silver Spring, Maryland on July 7, 1983
Ex Sun Ra band member Brother Ah back with an early 80's sensual, beautiful melodic and groovy album combining the best of buesy / jazz standards to classical "eastern" music, "exotic" acoustic instrumentations. "Motherless Child" is soul music, including a plaintive bluesy flavour sung by a powerful, melodic and tragic woman voice. The song is accompanied by an harp / flute duet. In "Sekou" , the traditional afro tendance of the band is more evident, featuring ethno percussions, funky bass lines. The title track expresses a the mellow fusion jazz side of the band, writting as a ballad with ravishing female vocals, afro grooves. Among their most accessible effort and not their best despite that is perfectly performed, with lot of passion and a good technical background. It's an important "world jazz" essay for collectors and could be a nice musical exploration for progressive fans.
Bob Northern, known professionally as Brother Ah, was known primarily as a French hornist, though he could play a multitude of instruments beautifully and The Washington Post rightly defines him a “synthesizer of sounds.” He died on May 31, aged 86. His interest in global rhythms led to some truly transcendental music, and he often fused it with his jazz formation and classical music education to produce a magically varied discography in the ’70s and ’80s. Key to Nowhere from 1983 is one of his standout albums, opening with a deeply affecting take on the traditional spiritual song “Motherless Child,” commonly heard during the Civil Rights movement in the United States. This version features vocals from Natasha Hasan Yousef, as well as an octet of musicians complete with a lush harp played by Jeff Majors.
In 1975, spiritual jazz pioneer Brother Ah (aka Robert Northern) ventured into a more worldly sound on his second album, incorporating robust African and Asian influences. Its eight eclectic tracks feature vocals from artists Dara, Aiisha, Kwesi Gilbert Northern and Ayida Tengemana, along with cacaphonous percussion, flute and stringed instrument flourishes.
In contrast to the more aggressive records in jazz’s protest-album history-think Archie Shepp’s Fire Music and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra-are the lovey-dovey discs that more often than not offered Eastern-informed wisdom and always offered the missive “make love, not war.” Two lost LPs of that ilk by French hornist Brother Ah, aka Robert Northern, have recently been reissued on the Ikef label. (Ah is best known for appearing on John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass, a handful of Sun Ra discs and sundry other avant-garde recordings of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.)
Move Ever Onward, Ah’s peaceful joint from 1975, rests his message of love on a bed of East-meets-West instrumentation. Between the swami-stained guitar duet in “Enthusiasm” and the pizzicato mystery of “Celestial Strings,” you can almost smell the incense burning. Making peace with the atrocities presented by vocalist Aiisha is a task for a master mediator, however. Though she can hit those elusive notes in between the notes, she lacks the charm of say, a June Tyson, and if it weren’t for the mellowed and restrained saxophone solo by Pat Patrick that follows her wailings on “Transfiguration,” the track would be repeatedly subjected to my remote controlled wrath. Kwesi Gilbert Northern’s smoothster crooning on “Spirits in the Night,” on the other hand, charms and creates a mood like a Philly-sound slow-jam: soulful tranquility. Onward’s instrumentals continue to entrance 17 years after they were laid down, but the vocal tracks, with their fanciful encouragements of peace and love, have merely translated to kitsch in the 21st Century, bestowing Onward with alternate powers of inducing either nostalgia or nausea.
01. Beyond Yourself (The Midnight Confession) (22:04)
02. Love Piece (16:20)
- Brother Ah / French horn, flute
- Pat Dixon / Cello
- Barbara Burton / Percussions
- Barbara Grant / Soprano Vocals
- Max Roach / Rap
- Howard Johnson / Tuba
Robert Northern or better known as BROTHER AHH is one of those jazz musicians who has been around forever having established himself as long ago as the late 50s after a classical French horn education at Austria's Vienna State Academy and worked with many of the greats that spanned the 60s, 70s and beyond including Donald Byrd, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Charlie Haden, Freddie Hubbard, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Gil Evans and Don Cherry (as well as many others) but is probably most famous for his run with the great Sun Ra as the french horn player in his Astro-Affinity Arkestra in the early 70s on albums such as "Atlantis" and "Sound Sun Pleasure!!" Northern himself emerged from The Bronx in NYC and also studied at the Manhattan School of Music before heading off to Austria.
While playing his gigs with Sun Ra, Norton was becoming extremely intrigued by non-Western music styles and ultimately visited and studied in Africa throughout the 70s. As well as contributing to a massive number of albums by other artists including John Coltrane's seminal "Africa/Brass" in 1961, McCoy Tyner's "Tender Moments" and Thelonious Monk's "Orchestra In Town Hall" amongst countless other appearances, by 1972 Norton began to release material under his own pseudonym BROTHER AHH with his debut SOUND AWARENESS being released on the Strata East label in 1972 after finding time away from the Sun Ra Arkestra's demanding schedule. Keeping in the spirit of the avant-garde and otherworldly sound that Sun Ra had been developing throughout the 60s and well into the 70s, BROTHER AHH explored similar territories with emphasis on two side-long tracks that included the extradorinaiy talents of Max Roach on drums and his percussion ensemble M'Boom as well as a 90-piece vocal choir. Despite the similarities in approach, the music sounds nothing like the world of Sun Ra and comes off as nothing else i've ever experienced.
Side one (of the original Vinyl LP) consisted of the multi-movement piece "Beyond Yourself (The Midnight Confession) which was broken down into the segments "Introduction," "Rap," "Midnight Confession," "Fear," "Demons," "Morning Song" and "Dawn" that tells the tale of a man's struggle to eschew the temptations in life in order to become a monk. Musically speaking this one delivers an avant-garde mix of minimalistic jazz and flute (both played by AHH) that sprawl into lysergic atmospheric expanses of a sound journey that evokes an ethereal and spiritual vibe. Although the track can sprawl on for lengthy segments, there are moments of spaced out echoey noises with startling shouted lyrics before chilling out into a haunting yet mellow mode again complete with ghostly voices reaching to the heavens (kind of reminds me of the vocals on the theme song from the original Star Trek only much more freaky.) The track gets super freaky as it meanders with intermittent echoing percussive drives, a subdued lugubrious horn section and the aforementioned ghostly vocals. There are also times that the echo effect is so strong that it begins to sound like a whale song under the sea.
Side two consists the single track "Love Piece" which contrasts greatly (towards the end) as it experiments much more with a heavier emphasis on various styles of ethnic percussive styles performed by Max Roach and his ensemble while vocal outbursts serve as a faculty of agitation to instruct the instruments to perform as well as prodding the 90-voice choir to eschew a total breakdown in order. The piece starts out as a single flute solo that is airy and light sounding more like some sort of ancient Japanese koto music from the Edo period with only a few sparse shakers as percussion, but a few minutes in the horn and vocals fire up with the horns dominating at first with fiery interplay between the French horn, the flute and a tuba. Once the percussion kicks in though, all hell breaks loose as Max Roach delivers a poetic rant about desperation and destruction that starts to sound something like a mix of an African-American gospel service and a tripped out Haitian voodoo ritual all dressed up with avant-garde jazzy time signatures, intermittent instrumental accompaniments and a crowd that gets more and more worked up after every spoken word statement.
For anyone into the most freaked out aspects of Sun Ra's works, this will feel right at home and although in the same ballpark isn't an exact replica of that great Ra's style. This is another bizarre mixture altogether of psychedelic lysergia, avant-garde jazz, tribal rhythms and philosophical reflections taking the listener down extended journeys into bizarre soundscapes that paint diverse colors and varied texturized canvases. While Northern would continue to release more of his own works, he would also continue to collaborate with a diverse array of artists in the jazz world and beyond as well as expand his interests in the different ethnic musical styles of the world. On this bizarre debut called SOUND AWARENESS though, he managed to create a completely wild and unrelenting ride from placid detached ethereal soundscapes to a full-on stampede of percussive drive that ends the album in full bombast. This is an excellent album that carries on the Sun Ra type traditions and takes them somewhere that Ra himself never envisioned.
In 1974, after Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins slagged their fellow Berklee alum David S. Ware in newsprint, a few musician friends residing at a little-known artist loft space at 501 Canal Street goaded Giddins with mimeographed posters. If he really wanted to hear what was happening in downtown jazz, they taunted, he should visit the building’s first-floor performance space. Giddins took the bait and caught reedsman Alan Braufman’s band, writing a positive review that noted the group’s “kaleidoscopic densities.”
By the early 1970s, those incandescent strains of jazz, as exemplified by John Coltrane, were in sharp decline. While plugged-in fusion acts were topping the charts, forward-thinking players practicing “black creative music” were no longer drawing bar-friendly crowds to clubs. For players and fans who deemed such music “as serious as your life” (a phrase subsequently used as the title of Valerie Wilmer’s excellent book about that era) they began to gravitate toward downtown loft spaces like Ornette Coleman’s spot on Prince Street, Sam and Bea Rivers’ Studio Rivbea on Bond Street, and late Coltrane drummer Rashied Ali’s own Ali’s Alley. But there’s little documentation of what was cooking at 501 Canal Street save for the lone record credited to Braufman, 1975’s Valley of Search.
There’s nothing to suggest that Valley of Search, the second release on the revered India Navigation label, attained grail status among collectors or was heavily in demand, and Braufman never released an album as leader again; there are no canonical drum breaks fetishized by latter-day beat producers, though Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden did slot “Rainbow Warriors” in his Just Jam set in 2013. But with players like Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, and Makaya McCraven initiating a groundswell of interest beyond the confines of the jazz community, the moment is ripe for rediscoveries.
While the sleeve denotes nine selections, Valley of Search really moves as two sidelong suites. Across these large-scale pieces, the first takeaway might be that Braufman is often eclipsed by his excellent sidemen. That’s no knock against him: The album features one of the 1970s’ most formidable bassists in Cecil McBee, a nimble and foundation-deep heavyweight who could be both lyrical and primal as he held down the low end for Pharoah Sanders, Jackie Mclean, Andrew Hill, and Charles Lloyd. The extra percussion and whistles that add to the din come from Ralph Williams, a future collaborator of Wadada Leo Smith.
Making Valley of Search especially noteworthy for jazz historians is an early appearance from Gene Ashton, known today as Cooper-Moore, who continually adds curious new textures throughout the session. Soon after the recording, Ashton decamped to Virginia, but he reemerged in the late 1980s as one of the most electric and eclectic players on the downtown scene, playing with artists like William Parker and Susie Ibarra. Here, he shows flashes of his multifaceted genius and acts as a catalyst for the album’s unique energy. His dulcimer playing gives opener “Rainbow Warriors” its uncanny African folk edge; his chanting of the Bahá’í prayer “God sufficeth all things above all things” leads to a fiery outburst from the band; his dense, choppy piano chords power the climactic “Love Is for Real.”
Braufman’s alto and flute provide the emotional resonance on the album’s final two pieces. His careening, drunken playing on “Little Nabil’s March” is a fine foil to the lurching martial beat behind him. On “Destiny,” he and his band muster a lucidity that is perhaps not as dense as Valley of Search’s other chaotic peaks but quite evocative, drawing on the roiling emotions of something like John Coltrane’s “Alabama,” luminous and sorrowful at once. It verifies Giddins’ impressions in that early press clip and reveals Braufman’s sense of the kaleidoscopic.
What we know of Downtown New York comes from the countercultural and creative flowering that emerged in lower Manhattan in the 1960s, attributable to cheap live-work spaces called lofts. These were often abandoned and disused small manufacturing spaces and they became a nexus for artistic practice and life. From a jazz perspective, lofts were alternatives to the club scene, and they gained notoriety in the 1970s. Places like Studio We, Studio Rivbea, The Ladies’ Fort, Ali’s Alley, and Environ became central in the development of the new music. But even the underground had an underground, and the happenings at 501 Canal Street on the West Side were a point of activity in which a small but dedicated number of people took part.
In 1973 a cadre of free improvising musicians relocated from Boston to lower Manhattan: pianist Gene Ashton (now known as Cooper-Moore), bassist Chris Amberger, and saxophonists David S. Ware and Alan Braufman. All had studied at Berklee College of Music, though they stood apart from most collegiate musicians. Ashton secured the building at 501 and the rent for the each of the four usable floors was $140 a month. The first floor became a performance space, while Ware and Braufman took the front and back of the second floor, respectively. Ashton was on the third floor with his young family, and Amberger was on the fourth. Later, drummer Tom Bruno and his partner, vocalist Ellen Christi would take Amberger’s spot. Along with bassist David Saphra and drummer Ralph Williams, the Braufman-Ashton unit became the house band, rehearsing regularly and performing in the storefront.
Braufman was born in 1951 in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, moving to Boston to attend Berklee in 1968. In his own words, he “started playing clarinet at eight; my mom was deeply into the music, so she would play Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Coltrane. It grabbed me – there was something exciting about it that I didn’t hear in other music, so no matter what I was going to be a musician. When I was thirteen I got my first saxophone. I had a teacher who could teach me how to play but not how to improvise (which is what I wanted to do) so I had to figure it out. I didn’t know changes, but I could pick out the patterns that were happening in free music and I could figure out what to do. I would teach myself patterns and scales, figure out some harmonics – I was self-taught until I got to Berklee.”
Braufman's sound — “Alan had a huge sound on alto and voice that was his, and that was rare in a town where you had lots of young players coming up” (Cooper-Moore) — was immediately appealing and rooted in such forebears as Jackie McLean. In Boston, he made other connections, including drummer David Lee Jr.’s wife-to-be who ran the coat check at the Jazz Workshop. The saxophonist parlayed that into working lights at the venue and, more importantly, a friendship with Lee that resulted in the percussionist’s place on this album. Braufman also sat in at the Jazz Workshop, which is how he met future mentor and collaborator Cecil McBee, whose partner Lucia, an artist, was also living in Boston — in this case, on the bandstand when the bassist was coming through town with Pharoah Sanders. Braufman later played on McBee’s debut Strata-East LP Mutima, recorded in New York in May of 1974 and a precursor to the bassist’s role in Valley of Search.
As Cooper-Moore tells it, “when we moved to 501 Canal Street… that’s when I got to really play with Alan. When we started putting on concerts, we used the same musicians but [depending on the day it] would be either his band or my band. It was around that time Cecil Taylor did a concert at Carnegie Hall with his orchestra, and Gary Giddins, who was writing for the Voice, wrote very badly about David S. Ware. Tom Bruno was living at Canal Street then, along with Ellen Christi. Philip Polumbo, a bass player and painter, was living on the top floor, and they were all working at the Village Voice. Tom said, you know, ‘we gonna get back at this guy Gary Giddins,’ so they mimeographed these posters, little sheets about how Gary was an idiot and he couldn’t hear, he really didn’t know the music and he should come down to Canal Street sometime and hear what’s going on there. So one week when it was Alan’s band, Giddins showed up and reviewed us, and we got good press. He thought that the space was loud but the headline read ‘Taking Chances at 501 Canal’ and then people started coming.” The article, in the June 13, 1974 issue of the Voice, discusses the music as it relates to figures like Taylor and Don Cherry, and notes the programs’ “kaleidoscopic densities” and that Ashton and Braufman’s linkage is what pushes the music forward.
Valley of Search is a document of the music at 501 Canal, but it’s also a document of relationships — people who lived or worked together and were humanly close. Braufman met Bob Cummins, the founder of India Navigation Company, at a party at McBee’s apartment in Harlem. The label had just been conceived, and Braufman would be its second artist. McBee, Lee, and Williams were obvious foils for their place in the saxophonist’s work and life, the latter providing a bevy of instruments that he would later apply to work with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. In late 1974, Cummins set up microphones in the building’s storefront, documenting two short sets by the band with no alternate takes or additional cuts.
Invoking with a dulcimer and bowed bass drone undergirded by flits of percussion, Ashton chants the Bahá’í prayer “God sufficeth all things above all things, and nothing in the heavens or in the earth but God sufficeth, verily he is in himself the knower, the sustainer, the omnipotent. God sufficeth all things above all things…” granting the music’s higher search a stirring, declaratory shout amid mountain strings. Soon, liquid alto keen, harried screams, and rhapsodic piano chunks edge a dense fracas toward the sharp, sinewy groove and foamy crests of the following movement. One would imagine that the music on this recording reflects the overall feel at 501; the compositions are among those that were in their book at the time, fleshed out with a powerful array of percussion, whistles, and cries, McBee’s bass steadily thrumming and in counterpoint to burred, throaty alto and briskly twined piano.
When Bruno and Christi moved from the fourth floor down to the first, that was the end of performances as they had been at 501 Canal; Ashton relocated to his home state of Virginia soon after, before returning to New York in 1985 as Cooper-Moore. Braufman would go on to work with drummer William Hooker and his own more commercially-leaning groups (as Alan Michael) before relocating to Salt Lake City, where he resides today. Valley of Search has enjoyed a cult status among followers of this music, and it captures a unique and very alive historical slice of New York’s creative improvised underground.
David Earl Johnson / congas, timbales, assorted percussion
Stu Woods / electric bass
John Abercrombie / electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Ralph Towner / electric piano, clavinet, 12 string acoustic guitar
A few months album the debut's release, Clive Stevens returned to the studio, but this time, the line-up is less stellar, even if Ralph Towner (keyboards) and John Abercrombie (guitars) are still present, with the former also toys with 12-string guitar. Stu Woods (bass) and Mike Carvin (drums) replace the MO alumni rhythm section along with Johnson on percussion. Again recorded in a NY studio and still released in 74, the album's cover with an intriguing flowing naked humans tripping out on whatever they took.
Opening the album, Shifting Phase is hotter and faster than anything on the first album, nearing RTF or MO execution speed (Aber even sounds a bit like McL), but this is not the case of the next few tracks, Inner Spaces And Outer Places even using a strong mid-tempo riff, while Aber, Towner and Stevens are jumping stars and galaxies with superb mastery, especially Aber's guitar. However the album takes on a contemplative turn with the really slow Un Jour Dans Le Monde, an ideal vehicle for Stevens' soft sax playing.
The flipside is definitely slower and more introspective, but it is no less hot-er than the afore- mentioned Shifting Phases track, even if the almost-9mins Water Rhythms is like a supernova exploding your mind. The album close on the aptly-titled Return To Earth and indeed it was a cool cosmic glide between galaxies, black holes and other spaceships, with Stevens shifting to a calm flute.
With its second and final album Voyage To Uranus (ever wonder why Uranus and never Neptune??), Stevens would not renew the experience again (most likely for sales and visibility issues - JR/F groups abounded in a more or less closed microcosm - and the project ends with this album. Just two largely forgotten albums, but well worth the hunt if you're into that trip. And I am.
Clive Steven's idea of a project had grandiose line-up and unfortunately, such a stellar membership has not done much for this album's reputation and memory, since hardly anyone remembers it and the album (and its follow-up) has yet to receive a Cd reissue. Not that the music on the album is revolutionary or groundbreaking ? this is close to an early jazz- rock ala Mwandishi, Nucleus and Bitches Brew, but we are in 74 ? but it is the type of album that consolidates the genre.
Obviously, one of the strong points of this album is the Laird-Cobham section, which is obviously used to playing together, thus giving the greater freedom for the others to improvise at lengths. Indeed, composition-wise, all of the tracks are written by Clive Stevens, but the least we can say is that this is a minimum service, since the improvs are taking voluntarily most of the space. Don't get me wrong, the album is of an excellent level, both in collective cohesion (excellent interplaying between all participants) and solo-wise, where they all shine like a thousand suns. As Clive Stevens' is the project leader, you'd expect him to grab a lot of aural space with his wing instrument, which is often the case, but he allows this two guitarists space (namely in Earth Spirit and Nova 72), and Abercrombie shines particularly in Yesterday Today & Tomorrow with his electric guitar. Towner's Rhodes playing is very much in like with Hancock or Zawinul, especially in All Day Next Week.
A jazz fusion classic from Atmospheres – a hip group led by reedman Clive Stevens, and which also features some usually-mellower players really taking off together! Stevens blows a great range of horns – electric and acoustic tenor, sopranos sax, and often a wah-wah pedal to inflect the notes coming out of his electric horn – a bit like John Klemmer in some of his early electric moments! This quality is emphasized nicely by the guitars of Steve Khan and John Abercrombie, and the electric piano and ring modulator of Ralph Towner – players who really know how to keep the right sort of space between the notes, which makes for a few funky moments – especially with core rhythms from Rick Laird on bass, Billy Cobham on drums, and Harry Wilkinson on percussion.
Collection of songs written and recorded between 1973 and 1979
ARABESQUE were an American Prog band from Pittsburg (Go Steelers!) who were never able to get a record deal so they created their own music over the years in a basement with 4 track tape.This is a compilation of those songs which were created between 1973 and 1979. Unfortunately the sound quality isn't top notch but man the music sure is. It's sad really that a label didn't give these guys a chance to do it right because they were a very talented group.
"An Epic : Krail Mountain" was started in 1975 but not completed until the next year. Again recorded on 4 track tape so it doesn't exactly sound that great. Nature sounds early then music followed by vocals. Spoken words 2 minutes in then keyboards and drums start to lead before it settles again.Vocals are back before 4 minutes. An impressive instrumental section from after 5 minutes to before 10 1/2 minutes. "Cobbler's Knob" is an instrumental and a top three track for me.This was the last tune recorded in the basement in 1979. Percussion to start as sounds come and go. Some nice guitar before 1 1/2 minutes.The drums are prominant followed by chunky bass 4 1/2 minutes in.The guitar is ripping it up a minute later. "We (The Farmers Song)" is simply a good song that could have been a single if shortened. Catchy and meaningful with excellent vocals. A top three. "The Forgotten Pond" opens with intricate sounds that come and go then it picks up and gets fuller before 2 minutes.
"As Novelty Wears..." is sort of a shot at the music business who at the time were only interested in disco and pop music because they sold records.This is really all over the place.Tempo changes galore as in "in your face" music business (haha). Good song. "Arcanum Of Atlantis" is the other top three for me.The sound builds and the tempo picks up.Vocals 1 1/2 minutes in. I like this one a lot. A nice long instrumental section on this one too. "Except For Dreaming" is the first original song they created but it was under a different name and it has been spruced up. I like when it turns dark and fairly powerful 7 minutes in.The tempo then picks back up with guitar. Nice.
A good album that more importantly allows us to get a glimpse at a talented band doing what they loved.
(Empress Valley Supreme Disc EVSD 951/52/53/54/55/56)
Ally Pally The 1st Daze
December 22 1972
Alexandra Palace
London England
101. Rock and Roll
102. Over the Hills and Far Away
103. Black Dog
104. Misty Mountain Hop
105. Since I've Been Loving You
106. Dancing Days
107. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
108. The Song Remains the Same
109. The Rain Song
201. Dazed and Confused
202. Stairway to Heaven
203. Whole Lotta Love
301. Immigrant Song
302. Heartbreaker
303. Mellotron Solo
304. Thank You
Ally Pally The 2nd Daze
December 23 1972
Alexandra Palace
London England,
101. Rock and Roll
102. Over the Hills and Far Away
103. Black Dog
104. Misty Mountain Hop
105. Since I've Been Loving You
106. Dancing Days
107. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
108. The Song Remains the Same
109. The Rain Song
201. Dazed and Confused
202. Stairway to Heaven
203. Whole Lotta Love
204. Heartbreaker
Bonus Disc [Riot House LP version]
Alexandra Palace
London England, Dec 22 1972
301. Stairway to Heaven
302. Whole Lotta Love
303. Immigrant Song
304. Heartbreaker
305. Mellotoron Solo
306. Thank You
Zeppelin’s longest tour of England would come in late 1972 with 25 dates spanning a two month period, the band would feature the same basic set list they had used in Japan the month prior that would also be used for the following European tour and become the framework for the American jaunt in the coming months. The group would take a short break mid tour for Christmas, just prior they would play two concerts in London at the Alexandria Palace, a venue that while very architecturally ornate and beautiful, was rather difficult to properly set up for musical concerts. Led Zeppelin would struggle with not only sound but also the temperature inside being somewhat cold. With a somewhat cool and lack luster audiences, the band would nonetheless put is two very enjoyable performances, collected in the new set from Empress Valley.
There are two audience sources for the first night at the “Ally Pally”. The first recording is in the very good range, it is more distant and while clear and detailed lacks dynamics, a bit flat sounding. This had a few titles on vinyl as Alexandria Palace 1972 (Gell), Alexandria Palace 22/12/72 (LZ 1972 AOZ7211AAPZ7211B), and People Weekly (Toasted TSTD 1910AD).
The second was the source for the brilliant and quite famous vinyl title Riot House (Jump JMP02AB).
The quality is excellent being taped close to the stage but sadly only features the last hour of the concert (I had this title for years on green vinyl). This concert would also be the subject of a scant few titles, Riot House (Wendy WECD 47/48/49) would feature both recordings but kept separate while Flawless
Performance (Image Quality IQ 013/014/015) and Riot Show (Cobra Standards Series 006) would mix the sources together. For this new release, Empress Valley uses the entire first source and fills a couple small gaps and for the entire mellotron solo > Thank You. I dug out my old Flawless Performance title to see how this new one stacks up. Surprisingly I found them both to be similar, the IQ title is amplified a bit more and thus has a bit more tape hiss where this new EV sounds cleaner with more natural dynamics, a big difference is that the bass podoes not muddy it up.
The concert begins with announcements, short and sweet sit down so all can see and the band get into Rock And Roll. Ah hearing this song as an opener can be a good thing (72/73) or a bit rough (75), thankfully Jimmy is in perfect shape and his playing is most fluent. The sound clears as they transition into Over The Hills and Far Away, I have always thought the band was thinking on what to put in this second spot as it is not as dynamic as Train> I Can’t Quit You or the devastating Immigrant Song> Heartbreaker openers used prior. London gets its first airing of this most important new song, something that would be a mainstay of the next five years. Jimmy plays a wonderful guitar solo while the rhythm section bobs along. Robert gives his opening speech about the prior date in London at Wembley Arena and mentions how cold it is and states “we must Instill the warmth in our bodies”, Black Dog certainly starts the thaw. The coupling of Misty Mountain Hop into Since I’ve Been Loving You was started on the Japanese tour the previous October and for me would be perfected as high drama on the American tour the following year. This combo is no slouch, the audience applauded the guitar solo that transition the two as Page breaks into Since I’ve Been Loving You’s opening chords.
Dancing Days has a great intro by Robert, “Summer, Inebriation…good times” and I must concur. I first started listening to this album on the junior year of high school and that was certainly our mantra. I love live versions of this song and wonder why the band did not keep it in the set for the American tour other than the rare second night in Detroit encore. The single acoustic number, not a Conway Twitty song but a tune written in the Mountains of Wales about a blue eyed dog, BronYRStomp. The hootenanny style of the song gets the audience clapping, at least some of them perhaps in a way to generate heat. The audience sound a bit impatient and shouts of Whole Lotta Love and Stairway To Heaven are heard as the group prepares for The Song Remains The Same and Rain Song, the double neck sounds a bit out of tune during Song giving an even feel to the first half.
The ever evolving Dazed And Confused gets a nice ovation, the song is also in transition into a structure that will last through 1975 and features the first known inclusion of San Francisco, curiously in his most recent Led Zeppelin Tape Documentary, Luis Rey traces its origins to the previous weeks performance in Birmingham and even goes deeper in recognizing the piece as being loosely based upon Neil Young’s Cowgirl In The Sand. Things finally heat up, Dazed is almost a prelude to a brilliant and well received Stairway To Heaven, and as with concerts from this era, it is Whole Lotta Love that brings the house down. The string of songs in the Medley features the band hitting a stride where the music flows and in dizzying pace. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love and a couple of Elvis classics are split by a cut in the tape from 11:3911:34 that is filled with source 2. Lets Have A Party and Heartbreak Hotel give Robert a chance to play King and for Jimmy to really let loose with some excellent lead playing. I Can’t Quit You has the group returning to its roots, Page plays what he feels brilliantly while Bonham and Jones play a shuffle as it flows effortlessly into Shape I’m In bringing an end to a typically well played set ending epic.
The second source is used for a few seconds of crowd noise at the end of the second disc and beginning of the third. The first encore is a brilliant Immigrant Song > Heartbreaker, the devastating combo is just as effective in the latter part of the show as the beginning, the audience are quite pleased with Heartbreaker and clap along joyously, the first source ends at the songs conclusion, the mellotron solo and Thank You are both solely from the second source. The difference between the two sources is like night and day, I like the labels choice to present the complete first source and it is nice to have it. Jones’ solo is interesting, at times it sounds quite whimsical and other time you feel like you are in some English cathedral. The audience seems happy as the band break into Thank You, Robert gives a beautiful vocal rendition of the track, sounds very much from the heart. Despite the cool conditions and audience the band plays well for the first night in London.
There are two sources for the second night in London, the first is by far the best, a bit distant falling in the good to very good range with just a bit of hiss. It has been the singular source for all previous titles, Merry XMas Mr. Jimmy (Lemon Song LS 720809), Titanic (Image Quality IQ 16/17/18), and Disturbance House (Wendy WECD 52/53). The second source is a short fragment of the first 30 minutes of the concert, is much poorer in sound and has never been bootlegged before. I broke out the old Lemon Song title Merry XMas Mr. Jimmy for evaluation, This new title was not amplified as much so it has less hiss and also sounds clearer, brighter and has a warm sound I find much more easy on the ears, clearly a much better version of the tape. Second night in London, While this concert is not as good as the previous evenings performance, it is certainly no slouch either. Again the band is plagued by the temperature of the building and Plant’s vocals do sound a bit rough at times, the band is so in tune with each other that even an average performance makes for a good listen.
You can hear a pin drop as Rock and Roll ends and Page plays the first few bars of Over The Hills and Far Away, they do however help Robert out a bit in Black Dog. Plant’s initial good evening finds him talking of good vibes something that does get a response of Hallelujah from one punter and he also says they left on the heaters in the bathrooms in an attempt at sarcasm.
Misty Mountain Hop is really good, Page’s guitar has a nasty sound to it and he plays an almost pregnant
transition to Since that again the audience give polite applause to. The pure English blues of Since I’ve Been Loving You is easily the highlight of the first half, Plant and Page put some really nice nuances to the performance as they share their musical conversation. Jones switches to the organ for the second part of the song giving it a very heavy vibe. Tuning is a constant in these cold temperatures, Plant asks the audience if anyone was there and he gets a loud response. He introduces Dancing Days to zero applause, and while the other three seem content with the isolation, Plant will continue to create a rapport with the audience, easier said than done.
The audience sounds bored and impatient prior to Dazed and Confused, they shout at the band but at least they’re alive! Another good transitional Dazed, each night Page sounds like he is experimenting with different notes and themes and is slowly working his way to perfection that would come during the European tour in a couple months time. The audience seems to agree and the song gets the first warm applause of the night. Shouts of sit down precede Stairway, the band seems a bit harassed by some trouble in the audience, which Plant addresses as “its one of the hardest numbers to do with a monkey house”, the band then start the piece over. Perhaps wanting to sooth the crowd and retain the vibes brought upon by Dazed, the band deliver a really nice version of Stairway that culminates the energy of the group in a positive manner. Just before Whole Lotta Love Robert tells the audience Bonham has a new drum solo called Titanic, and the band embark on a glorious 28 minute joy ride of a Rock n Roller coaster. The band gets into a funky instrumental version of The Crunge and don’t know how to get out of it so they just stop. The medley is the same as the previous night and has the same effect, awakes the sleeping audience with superb playing from the entire band and based upon the ovation at the end, their noble quest was successful. The band come back and dedicates the sole encore of Heartbreaker to Roy Harper. Just prior to Bouree, Page gets into some hoedown picking that had the audience stomping along, the vibes are finally real.
As a bonus, EV gives us the complete second source of the first Alexandria Palace gig, the recording is
excellent, full range of dynamics and sounds clear and atmospheric almost in complete contrast to the first source. This brings back a lot of memories for me as the recording picks up an atmosphere the other does not and was my first audience source for Immigrant Song and to this day is still one of my favorites. A great addition to this set. The packaging is nice, both concerts are house in a box with cover art taken from an Italian Magazine feature on the band showcasing pictures from the event. It seems like the latest trend is to include an OBI and the back of the box features a live shot of Robert. You open the box and each concert is housed in its own gatefold sleeve both with the same cover art with the center being different and the back has venue, date, and track listings and each also feature its own OBI. Simplistic yet classy looking. I like the mastering on this set very much, the packaging is nice and while it seems these mini box sets are a new fad, when done like this, works most effectively.
Dortmund-based Kraut Rock band, originally formed in 1971 by drummer Nicky Gebhard, keyboardist Reimund "Ferdi" Eberth and bassist Thomas Laleicke.Despite having a hard time finding decent rehearsal rooms, Zoppo Trump (named after a character from a book of Tilder Michels) were a live beast around the Ruhr area.For some sort time they opearated with Uli Beck as a second guitarist.This most important period of Zoppo Trump covers most of the self-titled archival album, released in 2009 on Garden of Delights.We find here a group of little character, generating from the already established fundamentals of the Kraut Rock movements, playing in a cliche jam mood, adding a few jazzy spices into their music and mostly performing over a variety of rhythmic paces with little imagination and a spirit, that's been long outdated.Stretched instrumental material with the guitar and organ in evidence and a few sax lines, lyrics come in English, but there is not much to recall after such loose executions.In complete shock Laleicke left the band in 1972 to relocate with his girlfriend and was replaced by Martin Buschmann on keyboards and -for a short period- Dieter Gorny on bass, who was soon left his spot to Udo Preising.The band became trully active again in 1973, until in 1975 Gebhard left to join Wallenstein and he was replaced by Wolfgang Hahn, who stayed with the group until its demise in 1977.Two tracks from 1976 show a totally different group, now playing much in a delicate Prog Fusion vein and unleashing some nice progressive values on organ, sax and guitars as well as different stylistical segments within the same track.A pair of cool pieces to save this archival document from going down to the hill.
The first two tracks here are when Zoppo Trump still existed as a guitar/keys-bass-drums trio. The music has a certain sophistication, but is also quite informed by the West Coast USA psych sound. At this point, they could be considered a parallel group to Walpurgis. Summary: Good not great. However change was on the horizon. Adding dedicated guitarist Ulrich Beck in 1972, which freed up band leader Ferdi Eberth on the Hammond organ, resulted in a remarkable progression for the band. As represented by tracks 3 to 7, Zoppo Trump sound more like their Krautrock contemporaries who adopted jazz characteristics as additives to their psychedelic Krautrock stew. Comparisons to bands such as Out of Focus, Thirsty Moon and Eiliff would not be an exaggeration here. This gets us to the two previously released tracks from 1976, that were initially on the "Scena Westphalica" compilation. Eberth rebuilt the band from the ground up, himself switching back to guitar, while adding three new members on keyboards/sax, bass, and drums. Here the band trades in their psychedelic Krautrock chips for a sound entrenched in more standard forms of jazz rock. Overall, an extraordinary musical document, which clearly demonstrates that Zoppo Trump could very well have released one of the all-time great Krautrock albums had they the proper chance. Only drawback is the less than stellar sound quality throughout (though still very listenable and miles better than bootleg standard).
