OCTOBER 09′
BALLADS AND SONGS OF THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS: PERSISTENCE AND CHANGE
In addition to Folkways there was Asch Records, from which this was a 1968 release of songs recorded in the field by Eric Davidson, Paul Newman, and Caleb Finch. About half a cappella and half instrumental - or vocal with accompaniment, these songs are pretty much just what you’d expect. Another sampling of a N. American regional legacy recognized by Asch and co. as moving rapidly toward extinction, this amazing document is well worth its weight. With origins in the British Isles, these songs are ancestral treats that were categorized for the record as “The Earliest Phase”, “The Early American Phase”, “The Guitar Phase”, and “The Late Tradition”. From the liner notes:
“It has been our purpose in presenting this anthology of songs and ballads from the Blue Ridge to represent and to characterize each of the stages through which the musical traditions of the mountains have passed, from the earliest times of which we have knowledge down to the present. There emerges a complex story of continuous, dynamic alteration in an old and private traditional form, one close to the hearts of its practitioners, as anyone who knows them soon becomes aware. If our study has been successful it may also serve as a guide to the recognition and dating of much Virginia and North Carolina mountain music from other areas.”
Side One:
1. “The Hanging of Georgie”, Paul Joines (1′34)
2. “Returning Sweetheart”, Sarah Hawkes (1′54)
3. “Barbry Allen”, Granny Porter and Wade Ward (2′43)
4. “The Young Men and Maids”, Paul Joines (2′19)
5. “The Green Willow Tree”, Paul Joines (4′21)
6. “Ho Lilly Ho”, Sarah Hawkes (2′15)
7. “Walkin’ in the Parlor”, Kilby Reeves (1′22)
8. “Little Sparrow”, Sarah Hawkes (1′50)
9. “County Jail”, Kilby Reeves (1′50)
10. “Warfare is A-Raging”, Aunt Polly Joines (1′22)
11. “Pig in a Pen”, Spud Gravely and Glen Smith (2′31)
12. “Roving Ranger”, Paul Joines (2′52)
Side Two:
1. “Pretty Polly”, Ivor Melton and Glen Neaves’ Band (2′09)
2. “George Allen”, Spud Gravely (1′16)
3. “Roving Gambler”, Hobart and Larry Delp with Joe Kyles 2:28
4. “Ten Thousand Miles”, Ruby Vass (3′22)
5. “1809″, Glen Neaves (3′12)
6. “Little Maggie”, Claudine Lambert (3′36)
7. “Death of the Lawson Family”, Glen Neaves (1′55)
8. “Lonesome Day”, Ruby Vass (2′13)
9. “Budded Roses”, Paul Joines and Cliff Evans (2′35)
Asch Records, ASCH AH 3831, 1968
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THE PIANO MUSIC OF HENRY COWELL
One of the first Folkways records I ever bought, and still one of my favorites, this absolutely stunning music sounds perennially fresh and inventive (as I imagine it always will). What makes this record unique isn’t simply Cowell’s whimsical explorations and ingenuity, but the fact that it’s Cowell himself playing unaccompanied piano (the only commercially available recording of Mr. Cowell performing his own music). A largely self-taught genius way way ahead of his time, Cowell started composing and experimenting with music in the early 1900’s. There is both a passionate beauty mixed with a measured dissonance and atonality in the music, and a couple of the tracks here are among the most beautiful compositions I have ever heard, in particular, “Trumpet of Angus Og.” Other pieces like “Aeolian Harp”, where Cowell plays the strings of the piano like a lyre, penetrate in beautiful and haunting ways. A playful and complex part of the Ultra-Modernist continuum that developed out of the pioneering works of Cowell and his avant-garde contemporaries in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. 
Finally, if the music weren’t enough, the last track provides Cowell giving a brief description of each song in the order they appear, offering a tiny glimpse into an inimitable imagination. From the liner notes:
“Having taken the whole world of music, in both time and space, for his own inheritance, he has never seen greater virtue in any one style or period than in any other, except that he has often said that to make “personal expression” an artist’s chief aim, in the manner of the 19th century romantics, is inevitably crippling because it is limiting. Self-expression is something he feels may safely be left to take care of itself. “If a man has a personality for his own, I don’t see how he can keep it out of his music,” he once told an interviewer who expressed the usual alarm at the breadth of Cowell’s musical interests. “And if he hasn’t, how can he put it in?” the composer added mildly.
Folkways Records, FM 3349, 1963
Side One:
1. The Tides of Manaunaun (2′29)
2. Exultation (1′50)
3. Harp of Life (4′22)
4. Lilt of the Reel (2′02)
5. Advertisement (Third Encore to Dynamic Motion) (1′09)
6. Antimony (Fourth Encore to Dynamic Motion) (3′07)
7. Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance (3′43)
8. Anger Dance (1′54)
9. The Banshee (2′35)
Side Two:
1. Fabric (1′24)
2. What’s This (First Encore to Dynamic Motion) (0′59)
3. Amiable Conversation (Second Encore to Dynamic Motion) (0′53)
4. Fairy Answer (2′55)
5. Jig (2′11)
6. Snows of Fujiyama (2′20)
7. Voice of Lir (3′09)
8. Dynamic Motion (3′15)
9. The Trumpet of Angus Og (3′24)
10. Tiger (3′32)
11. Henry Cowell discusses the above works in the order in which they appear on the record (13′16)
ROBBIE BASHO: ART OF THE ACOUSTIC STEEL STRING GUITAR 6 & 12
It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s virtually Impossible to find vinyl recordings of Robbie Basho (unless you want to pay a fortune), but if you look closely in the new age or folk sections of your local record store, you’ll most likely discover a copy of this Windham Hill/Lost Lake Arts recording from 1979 (for probably under $5), which for some reason seems to get overlooked. I don’t know if it’s because it’s not the coveted Takoma years, or if folks don’t realize it, but despite the Flamenco outfit on the cover and the synonymous new age music usually found on Windham Hill, this record is as good as any of the other Basho recordings I’ve heard. The recording is nice and clean, and the music is all strings o’ fire - even the track where he sings actually works. The song “Pavan India” is the gem in the bunch, and it’s an interesting reminder that the Stones riffed on the same raga variation on “Sing This All Together” from the great “Their Satanic Majesties Request”.
Windham Hill/Lost Lake Arts, LL-83, 1979
Side One:
1. The Grail And The Lotus (6′36)
2. Cathedrals Et Fleur De Lis (7′00)
3. Pasha II (6′33)
4. A Study For Steel String (2′59)
5. Ackerman Special (1′16)
6. Apres Midi American (1′56)
Side Two:
1. Variations On Grieg (5′02)
2. Scottish Rites (4′38)
3. Pavan India (7′11)
4. Variations On Ezumi (4′03)
5. Variations On Clair De Lune (3′36)
A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT: INDIA IV
I rarely grow tired of great East Indian classical music, and this lovely sampling of the southern tradition helps keep it that way. Recorded by John Levy for Unesco, the only fault with the record is that the first track on side one ends abruptly. It’s a bummer too because it’s an amazing slice of Carnatic singing, where vocalist Semmangudi Srinivasa Aiyar sings in Sanskrit “with his master in unison from time to time.” This produces a totally AMAZING effect, sounding as if two vocal tracks were mixed together in the studio from the same singer, when in fact, it’s twin voices that sound identical, drifting back and forth, side to side. Really gorgeous! The second track is a rollicking instrumental that’s toe tapping and dynamic, the third track is another gorgeous and full-bodied vocal-affair with instrumental accompaniment, the fourth track another shorter but equally lovely instrumental, and the last track, a ‘tuning-up’ of the vina that lasts about a minute. Weird.
Baren Reiter Musicaphon, Unesco Collection, BM 30 L 2021
Side One:
1. Dakshinamurte, a kriti by Muttuswami Dikshitar, Shankarabharana raga, Jhampa tala (sung in Sanskrit) (12′29)
2. Pancharagam, an improvisation on five ghanaragas: Nata, Gaula, Arabhi, Varali and Shri Ragam (12′53)
Side Two:
1. Navarasa, a ragamalika (garland of ragas), sung in Sanskrit (18′06)
2. Ehi Annapurne, a kriti, by Muttuswami Dikshitar. Punnagavarali raga, Adi tala. (5′27)
3. Tuning of the vina (0′51)
CHANTS MONGOLS ET BOURIATES: COLLECTION MUSEE DE L’ HOMME
This is another cross-sampling of regional music, specifically recorded in “Mongolia and Buriatia in 1967, 1968, and 1970 in the course of field work organized in the frame work of the Protocole d’Echanges Culturels between France and Mongolia, and as part of an exchange program with the Academy of Sciences in the USSR.” Some really amazing a capella and instrumental stuff here; throat singing, voices that sound like string instruments, birds, and other undefinable sounds. Some of the most unique vocalization music I’ve heard in fact, replete with crowd sounds and other incidental atmosphere. If you like voice, and hanker for that sweet Central Asian sound, then this is the one for you. Among other things, dig track two on side two that’s an imitation of a flute as played through the performers nose… Fuck! From the liner notes:
“The player flutes with his nose. Some air really does pass through the nose. The player’s lips are slightly parted but do not move: only the corners of the mouth tremble sightly and the cheeks are tensed. This tension brings him out in a sweat. The melody comes from the movements of the tongue. Anyone who possesses this technique is able to reproduce any melody”
“In Mongolian tradition, neither music nor singing can strictly-speaking be described as specialist activities. In the past, everyone was expected to be capable of singing and playing the fiddle at festivals when called upon by the master of ceremonies. If a young man could not do so or put up a bad performance, he was covered in ridicule, was subject to general reproof, and sometimes even to corporal punishment (he was beaten across the cheeks with a sheep’s rib), for there could be neither festival, nor ritual, nor ceremony without at least a song.”
Vogue Records, VG 403 530138, 1973
Side One:
MONGOL SONGS
1. Nostalgic Love Song (2′33)
2. Song To The Glory Of A Horse (2′05)
3. Eulogy Of The Gobi And The Camel (1′41)
4. Long Song: A Hunting Accident (3′00)
5. Short Song: The Four Seasons (1′47)
6. Hymn In Praise Of A Horse (1′35)
7. Long Song Of Filial Love (2′34)
Side Two:
MONGOL SONGS CONTINUED
1. Air Played On The Flute (1′41)
2. Imitation Of The Flute (with the nose) (1′57)
3. Jew’s Harp Voice (1′45)
4. Archery Song (2′10)
BURIAT SONGS
5. Archery Song (1′07)
6. Hunting Song (2′31)
7. Song Sung In Honor Of Parents (1′26)
8. Lamentation On The Lot Of Womankind (1′09)
9. The Daughter-In-Laws Lament (1′02)
10. Ring Dance Song (2′53)
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JOSEPH JARMAN “SUNBOUND, VOLUME 1″
Passion and purpose probably understate the project that was the Art Ensemble of Chicago, while Joseph Jarman’s contributions to both that project and creative music on the whole can’t be overstated. This is an amazing solo performance that feels almost visual at times, immense beauty, range, and complexity of emotion make for a full and colorful plate… best to let an excerpt from Joffre Stewart’s liner notes expand:
“The Art Ensemble of Chicago, minus 4, equates, in this case, to 1 Joseph Jarman in concert (solo) in The New Theatre, University of Chicago, exactly 7 years to the day that federal, state, and local taxes came together in an integrated police plan that pumped dope, lead, and murder into the sleeping bodies of Fred Hampton an Mark Clark, in that time honored political tradition that became all the rage in ameriKKKa since the CIA coupe d’etat at Dallas, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963.
Musicianship is a performing art. A recording is more like a performance than is a set of music (which cannot hope to adequately capture music in the jazz tradition) but the plastic is nevertheless not the same as catching Joseph Jarman live. The element of dance is as much a part of Lefty Dizz’ playing as 
the sound of his onehandstrumming. Thelonius Monk does a bouncy little dance around the piano & stage. “High Criticism” is blind to this element of dance, which, in Jarman productions, is more sophisticated - and technology has yet to catch up with these acts of creation in their entirety (and what we have here is 48 min. from an hour and a half performance. Applause deleted).
Philosophically, Jarman’s aesthetic is agreeable with the freedom-seeking anti-Statism that an-archists define for themselves as an-archism: that is, social arrangements without coercion: NO COPS NO COURTS NO JAILS NO TAXES. He has indicated a preference for one of my versifications where I define FREEDOM as a balance between discipline and spontaneity, using jazz as a case in point. (”Classical” music lacks the freedom represented by spontaneity. It is over-disciplined.) FREEDOM NOW from politics-racism-patriotism-sexism won’t undo the murders of 4 Dec 1969, but undoing the State prevents future ones. Non a les coups d’Etat: a bas l’Etat!”
There are no logical breaks on the record, so it is duplicated as two full sides:
AECO Records, AECO - 002, 1978
Side One (27′19):
I. Sunbound
A. Calling Together
B. Unity of Energy
C. Moving Together to the Great Light
II. Movement for Piano Players on a Break at 1:30 A.M. Saturday Night in a Big City
Side Two (27′47):
I. Spirit of Eric
II. Universal Mind Force
A. Discovery
B. Confrontation
C. Union
III. Spirit of Trane
ROEDELIUS SELBSTPORTRAIT
Another gorgeous slab from our friend Roedelius, this record is a suitable companion for stepping onto the spicy ferment of the autumnal, reveling in chilled solitude as you contemplate frost on the underside of a turning leaf. The cover art is terrific too, providing an essential 1970’s minimal German aesthetic for the music it houses. Although this is the third in the lineage of solo outings for Roedelius, these songs were actually composed in the early to mid 70’s during the Cluster years, making it a container for some of his first solo work, while also providing a direct link to the cross-pollination. Far and away my favorite of the ’self-portrait’ records, it feels the most cohesive and fully realized to me. Maintaining his usual graceful, yet child-like simplicity, there is always a deference to harmony and repetition, allowing the record to live up to the expectations that come with being a part of the giant force that was/is 1970’s German electronic music. Eno once wrote “Roedelius’ music… has a quiet intensity and conviction that burns stronger on repeated listenings.” So true!
Best. - Nr. Sky 028, 1979
Side One:
In Liebe Dein (3′45)
Inselmoos (5′42)
Girlande (3′51)
Fabelwein (5′11)
Prinzregent (5′49)
Side Two:
Kamee (3′46)
Herold (4′02)
Halmharfe (3′26)
Arcona (5′06)
Staunen Im Fjord (3′37)
Minne (2′14)
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