Best of 2009
Bobby Hill/Late Night Jazz/Thursdays/11pm-1am
“The past! the past! the past!
The past – dark unfathom’d retrospect!
The teeming gulf – the sleepers and the shadows!
The past – the infinite greatness of the past!
For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?” (Walt Whitman)
“For all that’s come before, tomorrow remains the question. To say any more than that would be intrusive and gratuitous. As unthinkable as asking our poets, singers, and players to do more than remain poised at the precipice, hurling queries and inquisitions into the circle of love and her longtime swing partner (that mute, miserable and monstrously intuitive and ingenious), The Abyss. (Greg Tate)
“You know, sometimes I wonder if what they call music is real music. Where sounds and noise turn into music, and where music turns into sound and noise? (Sidney Bechet)
“We have been captured, and we labor to make getaway, into the ancient image; into a new” (Amiri Baraka)
Bobby’s Comments: Though this might be considered jazz blasphemy, I never quite cared for Duke Ellington’s comment about there only being two kinds of music (“Good music, and the other kind”). If we must categorize music, when doing so, I prefer to try to steer clear of aesthetic value judgments (all that other kind of music today, might be considered good music tomorrow, or visa versa). The same goes for the avant-garde’s more recent leanings toward the term “creative improvised music” (only creative examples, and who determines that?). Realizing that categorization cuts down on the need to describe things in detail, and using the acronymic (i.e., LoL) bent of our current Internet society, the three categories that I have come to use to describe, as opposed to value (or de-value) the music, are:
Music of another time (MOAT)
Music of this time, out of another time (MOTTOOAT)
Music of this time (MOTT).
These terms are used below.
(1) MOTT
Recording: Maison Hantee
Artist(s): Alexandre Pierrepont and Mike Ladd
Label: Rouge Art
In this recording’s introductory comments, Henry Threadgill speaks of music and poetry, equal forms of sound. In this sense, Maison Hantee (which translates into ‘Haunted House’) is designed and shaped sound rendered both psychoacoustically and linguistically. The linguistic wordsmithing is provided by Alexandre Pierrepont (French) and Mike Ladd. Accompanying musicians include William Parker (guimbri, bass), Hamid Drake (drums), Roscoe Mitchell, Matana Roberts, David Murray, and Evan Parker (reeds), Rob Mazurek (cornet), Craig Taborn (keyboards), Thurston Moore, Joe Morris and Jeff Parker (guitars). Liner notes include poetry and words from Henry Threadgill, Greg Tate, and Amiri Baraka.
(2) MOTTOOAT
Recording: U.S. Tour
Artist(s): Trio X (Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen)
Label: COMPoL
This is a rare recorded musical experience. A 2006, 8 day tour of 7 U.S. cities, by a decade-plus working ensemble, resulting in this wonderful 7 CD boxed set from the folks at CIMP. Multiple versions of both standards and original compositions - Six ‘Motherless Child’s), four ‘Stella by Starlight’s’, re-titled here as The ‘Song A Robin Sings’, for instance) gives one an opportunity to hear how songs were transformed over the course of the tour. It features McPhee on reeds and trumpet, Duval on bass, and Rosen on drums.
(3) MOTTOOAT
Recording: Live In Vilnius
Artist(s): David S. Ware Quartet
Label: No Business
I was fortunate to be in attendance at the 11th Vision Festival in June of 2006, which concluded with what was then thought to be the final performance of the David S. Ware Quartet. Though quite magical, this 2006 performance turned out to be penultimate, as the final recorded release of the Ware Quartet would be this March 2007 date done in Lithuania at the Russian Drama Theater. Only available as a double-LP, the featured 27-minute version of Sun Ra’s ‘Stargazers’, is worth the purchase price, alone. The Quartet features Ware (reeds), Matthew Shipp (piano), William Parker (bass), and Guillermo E. Brown (drums).
(4) MOTTOOAT
Recording: A Quiet Thing
Artist(s): Lisa Sokolov
Label: Laughing Horse
This is a series of solos, duos, trios, and quartets that feature Sokolov on vocals and piano. Compositionally, it’s a mixture of re-interpretations (You Go To My Head, Lush Life, My One And Only Love, Ol’ Man River, You’re All I Need to Get By), Sokolov originals, and one traditional Yom Kippur prayer set to music. Accompanying musicians include bassist Cameron Brown, and drummer Gerry Hemingway.
(5) MOTTOOAT
Recording: Live At Last
Artist(s): Maghostut Trio
Label: Rouge Art
Famed A.A.C.M. and Art Ensemble of Chicago original member and bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut passed in January of 2004. This release, recorded just a few months earlier, in October of 2003, is the last recorded document of Favors’ work. Of the 6 selections, only one is a re-interpretation (Bird’s ‘Au Privave). It features Hanah Jon Taylor on reeds, and Vincent Davis on drums, and closes with ‘My Babe’, a near 12 minute brooding, scorching blues.
(6) MOTT
Recording: Manafon
Artist(s): David Sylvian
Label: Samadhisound
Though not featured on this recording, the late guitarist Derek Bailey’s presence can still be felt. It was Bailey’s more recent collaborations with Sylvian that seemed to move the former Japan-band founder towards more improvisational zones. Featured creative improvisers include Otomo Yoshihide (turntables), Evan Parker (reeds), Keith Rowe (guitar), Sachiko M. (sine waves) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixer).
(7) MOTTOOAT
Recording: Tribute To Albert Alyer
Artist(s): Live At The Dynamo (w/Roy Campbell, Joe McPhee, William Parker, and Warren Smith)
Label: Marge
“Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe”. On the now 40th anniversary of these words being spoken by saxophonist Albert Ayler, these master improvisers prove this to still be true.
(8) MOTT
Recording: Class Insecta
Artist(s): Ikue Mori
Label: Tzadik
An original drumming member of the iconic late 70’s No Wave band DNA, Mori moved to more improvisational settings as a percussionist, before turning her attention to more laptop-based music generation. This solo recording was executive-produced by John Zorn.
(9) MOTTOOAT
Recording: The Visitor
Artist(s): Jim O’Rourke
Label: Drag City
Adept in many musical worlds – jazz, pop, classical, and noise – O’Rourke has also been a member of the group Sonic Youth. Based in Japan since 2005, “The Visitor” was self-recorded and mixed in O’Rourke’s Japan apartment. Consisting of a single 37-minute track, this instrumental piece features O’Rourke on all of the instruments – piano, pedal steel guitar, organ cello, banjo, clarinet, and trombone – many of which he learned for this recording.
(10) MOTT
Recording: Suite – Live In Liverpool
Artist(s): Philip Jeck
Label: Autofact
David Toop’s description of Jeck: “Based in Liverpool, Philip Jeck collects old record players, the Dansette type with an automatic arm and a stacking device that allowed more or less continuous play, at least for the sequence of up to 10 45rpm singles sandwiched together on the central spindle. His specialty is to create a literal wall of sound from these record players…Jeck makes the loops with small strips of tape…these force the stylus arm back to the starting point…as if neglected memories collecting in the air had suddenly erupted into cloudy nostalgia.” (From Toop’s “Haunted Weather: Music, Silence and Memory”.)
(Best Reissue)
Recording: Secrets of the Sun
Artist(s): Sun Ra
Label: Atavistic
A gem from 1962.
