NOVEMBER 08′
“IN THE SPIRIT VOL.2: A TWO VOLUME SURVEY OF SANCTIFIED AND COUNTRY GOSPEL MUSIC”
With song titles like “Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane” and “Memphis Flu,” you know this will cure what ails. In fact, this is a wholehearted mix of traditional spiritual folk recorded between 1927 and 1934. Artists like Blind Willie Davis, Bukka White, and Charlie Patton are familiar to lovers of the traditional American folk/gospel ballad, but what about Elder Curry, Sister Cally Fancy, or Mother McCollum? This is an amazing document that captures the spirit of the time, while serving as a snapshot of African American gospel and its adaptation of the jazz and honky-tonk styles it helped inspire.
All these tracks are gems, transporting the spirit to another place and time with an ardent vibrancy hardly found in spiritual music today. And like the glass of warm milk mom brought when sleepless nights took hold, Washington Phillips’ version of “Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave it There” will melt your troubles away. So dust off that old bible, grab your neighbor, and put on your Sunday best, the promised land is just up the road, and you can bet it’s ’sweeter as the years roll by.’
“Origin Jazz Library was founded in 1960 by Bill Givens and Pete Whelan. Their idea was to reissue classic blues recordings of the 1920s and 1930s. The first issue was “The Immortal Charlie Patton,” which was received with considerable interest by the emerging “folk revival” community. The label soon established itself, and helped bring about the traditional blues revival of the 1960s, and added immensely to the body of influences which helped shape rock music.”
Origin Jazz Library, 1966 (OJL - 16)
1. Promise True and Great (Bukka White) (3′10)
2. Rock of Ages (Blind Willie Davis) (2′55)
3. Some Happy Days (Charlie Patton) (3′11)
4. Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand (Sister Cally Fancy) (2′32)
5. Troubled Bout My Mother (Patton and Lee) (2′56)
6. Memphis Flu (Elder Curry) (3′04)
7. How Much I Owe for Love Divine (Elder Richard Bryant) (3′05)
8. The Latter Rain is Fall (McIntorsh and Edwards) (3′16)
9. The 1927 Flood (McIntorsh and Edwards) (3′17)
10. I’m Pressing On (Rev. D.C. Rice) (2′50)
11. Thou Carest Lord for Me (Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers) (3′02)
12. When I Lay My Burden Down (Blind Roosevelt Graves) (3′12)
13. Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane (Mother McCollum) (2′54)
14. Sinners You’ll Need King Jesus (Williiam and Versey Smith) (3′20)
15. Sweeter as the Years Roll By (Blind Willie Johnson) (2′50)
16. Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There (Washington Phillips) (3′16)
BRIAN LAVELLE & RICHARD YOUNGS “RADIOS 345″
One of two 3 CD releases of sounds/music by Youngs/Lavelle (the other entitled “Radios 678″) for the now defunct UK noise label Freek, this manifestation offered brave pilgrimages into minimalist experimental sound/noise territory. The sources credited as Casio, voice, radio, thumb-piano, and guitar never quite make themselves fully apparent, but do provide sonic landscapes which I will only describe as textured horizons meets claustrophobic hallways. Subtle on movement, these tracks require a devoted fondness for, and patience with experimental music. Heavily processed, these recordings are typical of the experimental spirit of both artists, if not the harder to come by. Not much info on the recordings, but it leaves me feeling like the work was more Lavelle and less Youngs given their subsequent works to date. Stock up on the provisions, keep a warm critter near by, this is an unsettling (long) walk down murky sky lane.
3 CD Recording, Freek Records, UK, 1996
RADIOS 3 (Recorded in Glasgow on 13 January 1996. Brian: Thumb piano. Richard: Classical guitar.)
1. A grey artist, sleeping in idiosyncracy, Sergei has been fixed from museums with the monochrome of the contrast (34′41)
2. When he sings ‘Whey Setting, Echoing Sketches Have Eleven Images Increasingly Stuffed’, he is laughing, that one stationary American had such inividual devices (42′09)
RADIOS 4 (Recorded in Glasgow on 22 August 1996. Brian: Casio and voice. Richard: Voice and Casio.)
1. Ashes Oscillate 168 (16′11)
2. Shot One Disc (5′04)
3. Afterwards By Top (8′32)
4. Death Is Sharp (5′11)
5. Hunger Tried Years (18′44)
Coda: Position and Jeans (2′12)
RADIOS 5 (Recorded in Glasgow on 23 August 1996. Brian: Radio. Richard: Radio.)
1. Dream (9′56)
2. Springsteen (23′41)
3. Choloesterol (8′17)
4. Ocean (15′23)
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MATTHEW BOWER/RICHARD YOUNGS “SITE/REALM”
Having uploaded the above, I figured I’d add this too. This was a VHF/Insample label split from 1994. More in the spirit of adventurous sonic exploration, this time with the electric guitar as a means of transport. The outing realized the two as one, mixing elemental guitar noise and feedback washes with the occasional bowed cymbal. With Bower in the mix, this is pretty much what you’d expect, but as with ‘Radios’ above, it’s sometimes hard to discern who’s doing what. But not to worry, the record is a worthy take for fans of both artists, and shows glimpses of things to come. My crappy vinyl pressing installs a bit of warp to the bands, but doesn’t detract too much from the full-frontal lobe attack.
Recorded at AO Millom on 20th March, 1994, VHF/Insample split
Side A: Site (24′40)
Side B: Realm (19′00)
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SOUTHERN FOLK HERITAGE SERIES: BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN MUSIC, RECORDED IN THE FIELD AND EDITED BY ALAN LOMAX (ASSISTED BY SHIRLEY COLLINS)
This is a glorious collection of songs that were part of Alan Lomax’s American music recording odyssey during the late 1950’s. Field recordist Lomax (with assistance here from Shirley Collins!), with courageous foresight, and financial support from the Library of Congress, was able to tap into and document deep recesses of North Americas extant folk music cultures. This “Blue Ridge Mountain Music” collection, mostly adaptations and arrangements of traditional songs, serves up crisp and lively renditions, fully cooked in the finest creole of the Appalachian folk form. The “John Henry” by The Mountain Ramblers is on one of the best I have ever heard Bluegrass-style, and the tune “Liza Jane” should have anybody with half a heart for this kind of music dropping the bread pan and kicking up their heels. A wonderful document of just one tiny part of the North American folk legacy.
“With the tape recorder and the long playing record, the chain of communications between the diverse families of man begins to be complete. Primitive voices answer symphonies; country orchestras reply to cool jazz on an equal acoustical footing. Now with stereo, the stylistic surface and the unconventional structure of folk music can be heard for the first time.
I have been recording folk music of the world for over twenty-five years, and in the summer of 1959 I returned to my native South with hi-fi stereo equipment to offer the singers of mountain, bayou, prison and cotton patch the best of modern sound technology. People were saying that Southern folk song was dead, that the land that had produced American jazz, the blues, the spirituals, the mountain ballads and the work songs had gone sterile.
In a two-month tour which took me from Virginia through the middle South, to the Ozarks and back to the Georgia Sea Islands, I found proof enough that the South still holds a rich heritage of musical tradition and continues to produced new folk music. Many new songs were found. Three instruments previously unknown to the American folk song were discovered — the mouth-bow, the cane fife and the primitive panpipe.
Out of eighty hours of recordings, the material for these seven Atlantic LP’s was chosen. Some of the songs date back to European and African origins. Others were created in the pioneer period. Still others were born yesterday. The whole collection is a testament to the folk tradition of the Southern states where the country folk continue to sing the deep songs of our country.”
– Introduction to the “Southern Folk Heritage Series” by Alan Lomax.
196?, Atlantic Recording Corporation, SD1347
1. Cotton Eyed Joe (The Mountain Ramblers; Cullen Galyen, vocal) (2′31)
2. Big Tilda (The Mountain Ramblers) (2′10)
3. Jennie Jenkins (Estil C. Ball, Orna Ball) (2′40)
4. Jimmy Sutton (Spence Moore, Roy Birns) (2′33)
5. John Henry (The Mountain Ramblers) (3′45)
6. Rosewood Casket (The Mountain Ramblers) (2′59)
7. Silly Bill (The Mountain Ramblers) (2′27)
8. Big Ball in Boston (The Mountain Ramblers) (2′19)
9. Chilly Winds (Wade Ward) (2′11)
10. The Old Hickory Cane (The Mountain Ramblers) (4′27)
11. John Brown (Hobart Smith) (1′50)
12. Poor Ellen Smith (Hobart Smith) (1′58)
13. Liza Jane (The Mountain Ramblers) (3′07)
14. Shady Grove (The Mountain Ramblers) (2′16)
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AUTHENTIC MUSIC OF THE SNAKE CHARMER: IQBAL JOGI AND PARTY
This is a vinyl release from ‘The Atlas Series’ on Olympic Records from 1974. This music has been re-issued numerous times, and is available on CD. It’s not hard to find, and it’s relatively inexpensive. I’m posting this because I hope fans of Middle Eastern or E. Indian classical/genre music who haven’t yet heard it will get the chance. Given to me by my friend Irwin as a birthday gift, I was immediately floored. The musicians are ‘Iqbal Jogi and Party’ of the Sind region of Pakistan. The central instrument is the ‘Murli,’ or “the instrument of the snake charmer (seen on the cover).” Made of dried pumpkin, it’s a double fluted pipe, one serving as a melody pipe with seven (or five) finger holes, the other a drone pipe. On this recording, the Murli guides distinctly tonal and microtonal Rags, paced by a back beat that is as wildly infectious as it is hypnotic, much as it would need to be to mesmerize cobras! Enjoy.
The Atlas Series: Music From Around the Word - Olympic Records 6101
1. Lorau - A folk tune popular in the desert regions (4′13)
2. Momilrano - A folk romance (5′50)
3. Kohiari - Sind region of Pakistan (6′40)
4. Lal Mori Pat - Folk song (6′42)
5. Bhairveen - Rag of the morning (5′50)
6. Sorath - Folk tune in the Sindhi Ragni (10′56)
7. Pahari - Tune of Sindhi folk song and dance (6′18)
8. Pahari - Folk tune in Raga (4′07)
THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO WITH FONTELLA BASS
“Have you ever heard men blowing their guts out through their horns? Oh yeah. I know it’s supposed to happen in jazz all the time but the emotion is so often contrived that you tend to forget where, how and why jazz and the blues were spawned. Their parents, after all, wore neither tuxedo or dashiki and they lived a long, long way from velvet-curtained stages. The music came from the other side of the tracks and it’s only when it relates to that heritage that it pulls you to it and makes your heart throb along with its rhythm.
Five men from Chicago recently gathered in Paris to talk about life as it really is, life as it has been, and life as it’s going to be — and don’t nobody step in its way. Five men and one woman — one fine and beautifully-coiled spring of dynamism and soul. Fontella Bass. Resurrected from the oblivion that followed her single releases, “Rescue Me, and “Soul of the Man,” Fontella comes out there to tell it loud; to shout, scream and spew out her mind about blackness and pride. And she can make you weep with her intensity.
Joseph Jarman, acting as spokesman, explains about black music and black culture and how the enemies of the new music protest that it no longer resembles the human voice. “The critics have called it avant garde, they’ve called it the New Thing” he said, “but we have only one name for it: “Great Black Music.” And that, along with the showing how the music still echoes the black American’s struggle for survival, is what this record is concerned with.
Jarman and Mitchell play too many instruments to annotate in detail. The whole unit takes over two hours to set up, a fact that in itself is a fair indication of the extent of their total involvement. These five men really live music and you can’t apply that praise to many groups these days. There is always a a sense of tradition combined with the urgency of freedom in their playing, a virtue shared equally by Miss Bass who is Mrs. Bowie in private life.
You hear a lot of idle talk nowadays about “Power to the People” — the slogan has even been annexed by John Lennon — but only a handful of those who proclaim it attempt to put it into practice
The Art Ensemble are a long way from being revolutionaries in any political sense — “The Panthers did their thing in a completely different way to how music is done,” Roscoe Mitchell has said — and yet their music represents another interpretation of Black Power. Although the dedicated bunch of Chicagoans are artists first and foremost, they come closer to realizing that slogan than some of their brothers do, simply through playing the people’s music.
“We miss the stimulation of the ghetto,” wrote Lester Bowie after a spell of exile in France and you can read their earthly folklore from the music. The people are the ghetto, the ghetto people are the music.
– Valerie Wilmer (back cover of “AEOC with Fontella Bass”)
“The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass was recorded in a Paris studio in 1970. The band had been gigging regularly in the city and this session offered an intimate view of the live material including “How Strange” which appeared later on Live in Paris. “How Strange” is part of a suite with “Ole Jed,” comprising nearly 22 minutes. Bass, an R&B and gospel singer by trade and Lester Bowie’s wife at the time, adds a wonderful theatrical and sonic dimension to the Art Ensemble’s creative juggernaut. “How Strange” begins with an African chant by Joseph Jarman and Bass. As the instruments enter in earnest, one can hear traces of “Round Midnight” waft through the background and then the musical reality play is off and running. Bass sings, roars, growls, chants and spits poetry, becoming another fiery instrument in the band’s arsenal. On “Horn, Web,” Don Moye kicks it with a trap drum solo. For nearly four minutes before the tack comes to a standstill and the horns of Jarman, Bowie and Roscoe Mitchell come in, blaring in unison before the work becomes a long, spacious textural study with many dynamic and colorful shifts along the way. Thirty-six years later, this piece still sounds fresh, new, full of inquiry and excitement. This set stands the test of time beautifully.”
Prestige Records, 1972, PR 10049
1. Part One “How Strange” - Part Two “Ole Jed” (21′52)
2. Horn Web (19′36)
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