William Hooker Ensemble - The Firmament Fury (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"Hooker's music is good, unabash ed free-jazz improvising. He and Lawrence make an effective duet: Hooker's rolling bed of drumming avoids direct comment on Lawrence's strong, Lyons-inflected alto. Of the trio and quartet tracks on the album, Pralaya and Radiance are probably the strongest. The horn players get their solo moments and do well with them, but the music is framed to emphasize the group, and that's where a listener's ears are drawn. There's good group improvising to be heard here." 

Dale Smoak, Cadence, February 1993

1. Crises

"At first I was afraid; this familiar music had demanded action, the kind of which I was incapable, and yet had I lingered there beneath the surface I might have attempted to act. Nevertheless, I know now that few really listen to this music." 

Ralph Ellison
The Invisible Man

It's my firm belief that the task of the musician in playing improvised music is to anchor a higher level of existence on the material plane. This doesn't mean to say that this happens, or that this view is shared by other composers, players and colleagues. There are, of course, more superficial views which address themselves to money, fame, prestige, women/men, and power. These views should not be dismissed, for these people also play music, write compositions, do interviews, make records, and (indeed) cause the direction of improvised music to go a certain way. But my alternative view still stands. I feel that when one is making music, it is the task of the musician to create what flows on a higher level of life-thought and idea. I believe this abstraction is acknowledged by most musicians who see each other, and ultimately respect each other, just because we are musicians.

This is probably an unwritten code of thought in the creative field. It is one which seems to be realized wherever I go, amongst friends and enemies alike. We are neither promoters nor entrepreneurs first, we are artists with that unique talent to improvise and create music on the spot. This unites us. The other territorial boundaries separate us. But the first goal is in the bringing down from some higher place, an energy, a music, which exists on a realm outside of the ordinary everyday drudgery of life, and it is the realization of this that produces the crises. In coming down the music is used, abused, transferred and transformed, not always toward higher levels. And this music is (mostly) not heard by the human beings meant to receive its message.

2. Resolution

The fact of 'identification' with the music one makes is also a situation that can produce a desperate individual, with a life and creative juices that are even more desperate. I speak of the need to affirm self-identity for the artist. What is real (surely) is not only in the music's imaginative vista, but one begins to question the aspects of life and death which every individual questions, after a while. 

This is the scenario: the musician is creating and no one is listening, no one is affirming higher art, no one is crediting the individual with products of higher life (or beauty) – yielding bad vibes all around. 

At this point the artist asks, "Now am I just going to let these people destroy me and my own self-worth? Am I going to let them use me as their pawn in the scheme of technological know-how and materialism to place credence in their perverted vision of what art is, what my improvised music is, and what the direction of my improvised music is?"

This is an affront to my ability to say what my work is and my ability to be truthful in explaining it; thus making it impossible for me to teach it to others. At this point we stop asking what is correct for them, for I have (mistakenly) placed all of my self-worth in being an artist. For these people to tell me that my work is valid (or invalid) is to have the outside world confront my existence, my playing, and my outlook on life on this earth. I am and should be, the judge of this situation; yet it is important for me to have the final word on how I do my work, my improvisation, my life. Perhaps if the world weren't so specialized I would not have to deal with this. Perhaps, if money weren't the only yardstick for measuring the worth of things I wouldn't have to acknowledge this ignorance. 

Nonetheless, we decide that we (the artists) make the music. We have played varied styles in many cities/countries, and when we play with others we know that it is ourselves calling for the instantaneous response to our musical framework. Therefore, within (the 'order' comes from ourselves and whatever the societal context) we know whether our music is true or not. We know how we felt on the day and night of the gig. We know what club owner messed with us, and who we had to be hassled by about the tapes, the pay, the working conditions, etc. Finally, in response to the higher order of things, we know we will die when it's time for us to die, and this no one else can do. It is the musician himself who can legitimize himself; but this is a given, for when he plays he says – I AM. This is the ultimate legitimation. Our notes are our being. I am my music. I initiated the action, and the people involved.

Who can question me? I say to the arrogant mind-set I am confronting, "Do you think you have the right?"

3. Plateau

"All growth is committed to a foundation; time is growth – We are extensions of what always was – and so the TREE grows." 

It grows in its own fashion and in its own environment, and those that care will elaborate on it. This keeps the 'heart' of the matter in the correct place. The music is not merely a process of mix and match, of technological wizardry. There is a spiritual bond (if you will). The acknowledgement that another, be it the musician, the mentor or the teacher; is concerned, and would contribute. This encourages the individual to go to the next step of trying to get money from the business interests who must be persuaded to fund and support our work, so they can perhaps assuage their need to be respected as 'civil citizens' who have culture in mind. This may (or may not) be correct. 

But when we see the motivation of the true artist, we know that our journey is beyond the color of the participants; the race of the average audience; the environment of the presentation. We only know that we are to play and deliver in a strong and spontaneous fashion. Again, this challenge should be differentiated from the supporters. What is this? Talk, conferences, seminars, vocal meanderings... Sure we need the money, but this does not make our committment.

We try to measure up to what our observers cite. This can be positive. Yet there is a paradox. My value triples in Asia. The dollar is on a different scale in Europe. And the white Anglo-Saxon ethic can make me be reproduced on a level that is so cold that everyone will be listening on this scale. This is part of my struggle. My music is Afro-American classical music and I reproduce it myself. No one should tell me how 'hot' I should be, or who I should play with; and I must push to eliminate these problems.

I have realized that the offering I'm making is to a higher place. This doesn't make me an idealist, or impractical, because the vision is always tempered by the world's lack of creativity and fire, and interest in improvisation. This is to be expected, it is the way of the world. But when we take on the rules and values and speculative schemes of others to make our own creative efforts legitimate, we, as artists, are doomed. The music ceases to flow, and hence there is nothing in this environment in any way creative, or giving, to the spontaneous impulse or the music. I try to keep this thought in mind, but not for too long because thought, in itself is also a trap, where the naturalness stops and yields to the master plan of the mind, not the sentences of the music.

4. Crisis – "Once said"

Another crisis is arrived at, for the cycle repeats itself. After creating and going through the stages we have already mentioned, you will find yourself in another cloud. The SUN stops shining, and the western sense of culture stops the mood of the soul's impulse. A cold, closed environ. I will remember the past; I will live to try to stay fresh. My committment to improvised music is in my practice of the art. My necessity to protect its legitimation can only go so far, for the mind only goes so far. It's up to others to realize the process and to listen, openly. I only hope you, the reader, will realize that truth after the natural course of listening is submitted to.

William Hooker

1. For the Spirit of Earth / Cosmic 10:15

2. Prayala 14:07

3. Lustre 13:19

4. The Coming One / Evolve, Part One 08:21

5. Radiance 11:02

6. Evolve, Part Two 02:42

William Hooker drums

Claude Lawrence alto saxophone

Charles Compo tenor & soprano saxophone

Masahiko Kono trombone

Donald Miller electric guitar

Rob Brown Trio - Breath Rhyme (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"Breath Rhyme establishes a high level of creativity right from the first few minutes of Firewalk and maintains it for over an hour. This is one of the best trio record I've heard in some time. It makes a strong case for Brown's place amongst today's better alto improvisers and is another unqualified winner for Silkheart. His Breath Rhyme is an artistic triumph." 

Carl Baugher, Cadence, May 1991

Watching this trio in the studio was fascinating. For a fledgling leader, Rob Brown was almost eerily calm. (Technically this is his second album, but his first – Sonic Explorations, co-led with pianist Matt Shipp, for Cadence Jazz – had been privately recorded and then sold. So this was his first real studio date.) Brown quietly went over cues and solo orders with his rhythm section, and proceeded methodically from one composition to the next without pausing for many playbacks. He was undistracted by the trickle of kibitzers and fellow musicians (like tenorist Frank Lowe) who stopped by to check him out. But when Brown took up his alto and hollered on his horn – he'd lean back, bending his knees and rising on his toes, like a basket player at the foul line – another side of him poured forth. It's as if there's a part of him down deep only music can touch.

Drummer Dennis Charles is animated by nature, but on the days this album was taped he was even more up than usual – the day before, he'd finished recording his own debut as leader (Silkheart SHCD 121). Listening to a playback of "Firewalk" in the booth, he did an ecstatic Monkish shuffle, letting out with an occasional "Oh Yeah! William!" or "Keep that one!" You can hear that enthusiasm in his drumming, just as you can hear his West Indian background in his beats and rhythm. You can hear the shape of a composition there too – Dennis called for a retake of one tune because he wasn't thinking of the melody when he soloed.

By contrast, William Parker is peaceful and steady – the band's anchor when Brown and Charles spin off on tangents. But like Brown, he may reveal another side when he plays – as on "Beehive," one of the greatest displays of manic/controlled bowing I've heard or seen. It makes a case for Parker as the greatest arco bassist in jazz (as do his overtone manipulations on "Stillness"). For that matter, he's one of the greatest jazz bassists, period. 

A few weeks later, Rob Brown sat in a park near his home on NY's Lower East Side, and talked about the road he's taken from Hampton, Virginia (where he was born in 1962) to fronting a trio with two of the best rhythm players in the music. This is some of what he said:

"When I started playing saxophone at 12 or 13, I took it for granted I'd always be a musician – I didn't think it was strange, I just wanted to play. I wanted to play in big bands. Then I got into bebop when I was in high school. I used to listen to Bird records, and read biographies of all the bebop people – I read Bird Lives three or four times, as corny as that book is. I wanted to get into everything that had to do with the music, expecially interview material – it'd give me ideas. Some books I read later that I really liked were A.B. Spellman's Four Lives in the Behop Business, Val Wilmer's As Serious As Your Life, Amiri Baraka's Black Music, which has a chapter on Dennis Charles, and J.C. Thomas' Chasin' the Trane, which has interview material with my teacher, Dennis Sandole." 

Brown spent some of his college years in Boston, at Berklee. "I took an ensemble performance class with John LaPorta. I learned a lot about attitudes toward music from John – not to be inhibited or afraid to make mistakes. 'You'll learn as you play so don't be afraid to go after something that may seem to be out of your reach.' Joe Viola was my saxophone teacher, and he gave me a lot of help with my sound. But they didn't have much of a direct musical influence – I was learning mostly from playing and listening to records. I listened to a lot of Sonny Rollins – not the trio recordings orginally, though now they're my favorite Rollins. And I listened to Ornette, though I'm not really familiar with his trio LPs. I was more into the earlier stuff, the Atlantics and the Hillcrest sessions with Paul Bley.

"The only teacher who had a lot of influence on me conceptually was Dennis Sandole. Three or four years ago, after I'd been in New York a year, I'd take the train to Philly once a week to study with him, for a year and a half. He's a really great teacher – Coltrane, James Moody, Art Farmer and Tommy Flanagan were some of his students. His whole method is very well thought out, very comprehensive. He takes musical materials and puts them together in endless ways, ever and ever more complex. He gave me a real framework to keep working on my own, putting in my own material.

"Before that, I'd studied briefly with Lee Konitz at NYU – less than a semester. But what he'd been trying to teach me was very different from what I'd been working on. Lee wanted me to play Louis Armstrong solos, and though I realized the value of that, I was headed in a different direction, and found that approach stifling at the time. I'd been listening to Albert Ayler, Jimmy Lyons and Roscoe Mitchell. I always liked Jimmy Lyons, but never considered him a big influence – I was much more aware of Cecil Taylor. Roscoe was one of my biggest influences in a way, though I haven't really listened to him for years.

"At one point I totally cut myself off from playing anything reminiscent of traditional jazz. I felt like I had to start all over from a totally different premise, that it was necessary to develop my own vocabulary from which to improvise." 

So has he done it? "Well, yeah. It keeps going on, keeps expanding. I've developed my own language, maybe not radically different, but personal. For one thing, I think intervalically instead of harmonically – dealing with strings of intervals. As in bebop, the emphasis is on the line, but my lines are created by how the notes relate to each other, not to a chord sequence. Sometimes I write tunes that have chords, but they're tetrachords – groups of notes that happen to fall into chords. 

"I try to employ variations on as many musical elements as I can – rhythm, dynamics, timbre. I don't think in terms of traditional timekeeping, but sometimes I think my playing is rhythmically like a drum solo. I feel like I've had to create my own drums with the saxophone. When you don't have a regular tempo under you, you have to create your own pulse to sustain itself. But usually I think about all this stuff in a more intuitive way. 

"I first played with William Parker about three years ago, in a trio with drummer Frank Bambara. We'd rehearsed, and then William called me to play in his big band. A little while later, I put together the trio for a gig at the Knitting Factory; that's when I first played with both William and Dennis. I'd known Dennis was around, and had heard him play and I knew he and William had worked together a lot, with Jemeel Moondoc and some other bands. They'd even rehearsed as a duo for a while. And of course both have worked with Cecil Taylor, though not at the same time.

"To me, William is one of the greatest bass players – I've seen him do a lot of concerts where he'd do some amazing things. He plays in a lot of situations, but some don't show his talents. Dennis is a very interesting player because he comes from a straightahead kind of sound – he really digs Art Blakey – but has stretched that out, thinking in other terms besides the traditional. He really listens, and he's fun to work with. Unlike a lot of drummers in free situations, he doesn't overbear. His playing is very honest, simple but sincere. His playing starts from ideas, not showing of his technique – it's very well developed.

"On the record, I wanted to do a couple of different things – to make it compositional, and for the compositions to vary conceptually to get the whole spectrum of colors. I wanted to avoid just playing in a traditional melody-solos-melody format. We do some of that, but it's not the only thing. I wanted to make it clear that every tune had its own character. Records bother me when the compositions sound different but all the solo sections sound the same. I like to set up textures in advance – to conduct the group through textural changes. So I give William and Dennis an idea, and they do with it what they want. I might give William a melody to play with me, or a written bassline in counterpoint to the melody. But he may change it, which is okay – if it works, it doesn't matter." 

As we were wrapping up, I tell Brown what I've already told you: that the bluesy, hollering energy in his playing seems to come from some remote place – that he seems to tap into something elemental and spiritual. "I would never try to say that I'm a blues player. I have nothing against it, I just don't think in those terms. If it comes off that way it's 'cause people are hearing something I really feel." He mulls it over for a second. "Yeah, there's a spiritual thing there, definitely." 

Kevin Whitehead 
June 1989

Alto saxophonist/composer Rob Brown's music suggests a direct link with the naked expressionism of the 60's avant-garde. The trio interacts in such an intuitive fashion that it conveys improvisation on a level which recalls Cecil Taylor's notion of music being organic, a living entity. Brown's unyielding devotion to his art is also reminiscent of John Coltrane's onemindfulness; so much so that even the titles of this session's compositions were afterthoughts. Brown's compositions deal with the music in and of itself, rather than through any reference to personal experience. Finally, his dry piercing tone connects with an array of 60's players (Ayler, Charles Tyler) in its hard and sensual directness. But, far from being the avant-garde's Wynton Marsalis, Brown is an original talent whose music adds onto 'the tradition', rather than simply bathing in its glory.

"I don't think in terms of 'free', I like Albert Ayler for his sense of melody and his folk references. But my playing is different from music of that era because of its emphasis on an equal share of harmonic development and variation." For added points of reference, Brown cites Charlie Parker and the great Philadelphia teacher Dennis Sandole as being instrumental in his growth. It is the quality of 'growth' that Brown best exemplifies, be it in the firmly mature sense that he has of himself as a young artist or his daunting lyricism in the searing music found throughout this session.

I hope that Rob Brown continues to evolve this music. I hope too that he continues to maintain the fixed, poignant melodies that lie at its heart, the harmonic richness that elaborates on the past. I also hope that he continues to play with the likes of Charles and Parker, of course. "I have to play with people I trust," he insists.

I trust that on those terms you will enjoy both Rob Brown's bright future, and the music at hand here. 

Ludwig Van Trikt

1. Firewalk 10:56

2. Stillness 06:01

3. Breath Rhyme 07:35

4. PB 10:51

5. The Light 04:49

6. Beehive 11:34

7. Awake 07:31

8. Escape Velocity 06:38

Rob Brown alto saxophone

William Parker bass

Dennis Charles drums

Dennis Charles Triangle - Queen Mary (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"Named in honor of a revolutionary Black woman from St. Croix, Charles along with his brother Huss Charles on conga, a sturdy and outstanding Wilber Morris on hass, and a stalwartly strong hut woefully under-recorded Booker T. on tenor sax offer up a program which manages to emphasize solos without at the same time de-emphasizing the compositions. The balance is extraordinary and the music invigorating, especially because its rhythmic appeal is so strong that one quickly drops any prejudices that one has about the lack of swing in avant-garde jazz." 

Kalamu ya Salaam, Wavelength, October 1991

In 1878 three women canefield workers led a march across the Caribbean island of St Croix. Armed only with machettes, kerosene and matches, they burned down estates and the sugarcane crop in a revolt against the invidious wages and conditions that kept the people of the Danish-ruled Virgin Islands in a state of de facto slavery, thirty years after emanicipation. Many whites were killed before the rebellion led by Queen Mary, Bottom Bell and Agnes was quelled, but the gendarmerie needed massive reinforcements to do so.

Caught up in the mob was Dennis Charles' grandfather. "Are you on our side of Ironside?" went the battlecry - 'Iron-side' was Denmark – and the wrong response spelt death. It was an uncertain situation for a 12 year-old, and when the rum-drinking rebels sent him for limes, he took the opportunity to disappear.

Dennis Charles had this story from his father on a recent trip to St Croix, his first visit to his birthplace in 28 years. But the music, the song that grew up around the Queen Mary story was something he had carried with him since childhood. Like the other pieces here, he first heard it over fifty years ago. "In all the years that went by, I would rearrange these tunes in my head. I started hearing them as jazz."

Dennis Charles, disciple of Buhaina (Art Blakey) and Cecil (Taylor), percussionist veteran of the New Music's earliest wave, has never turned his back on his Caribbean childhood. Even working with pianist Taylor in the 1950s, he was doubling up in calypso bands and playing West Indian cocktail ships. For years he has talked of the music he heard while living in St Croix: the Christmas and New Year Masquerade (Carnival), the bamboula drum dances, the Wild Indians with painted faces, ("incredible dancers"), the story of David and Goliath played out in the streets. There were the Mother Hubbards, too, a hundred-strong contingent of women dressed entirely in white, who would take over the streets of Frederiksted, the capital, with their unique style of singing and dancing.

Charles had carried the idea of recording some of the music for a long time as well. A New Yorker since the age of 11, he first returned to St Croix in 1960 with his younger brother Frank, ('Huss'), also a percussionist. They caught the end of an era when the quadrille was still danced, accompanying their father to a ballroom called Come-along Castle where an elderly audience danced to the sounds of earlier times. With a metal flute to carry the melody and a squash scraped rhythmically in time, Charles père laid down the chords on his banjo. Another man maintained a cymbal-like beat on a triangle or 'steel', (so-called because generally made by a blacksmith), the bass being provided by an instrument unique to the region. Its exponent, a man Charles describes as a 'genius', was Joseph 'Paddy' Moore who blew, juglike, on an exhaust-pipe.

When a group of elderly women were persuaded on to the dance floor, Charles witnessed the life-renewing power of the music. "Really, it brought back their childhood. They would pull their dresses up when they'd play these quadrilles, and they were screaming and having a hall. Their age went out the window!" 

He remembers turning to his brother. "I said: now wouldn't this be a bitch if you had a rhythm like this – no jazz drumming – and a saxophone like Sonny Rollins soloing?" It was the first time he had considered the possibility of translating the music into a modern setting.

Back in New York, he sought out Rollins, enthused. The latter's pianoless Freedom Suite had not long been released, and the rhythmic possibilities of a similar group suggested themselves. He knocked on Rollins' door and introduced himself, and before long, the Charles brothers were coaching Rollins in the rhythms of their childhood. But the record-date that ensued was fraught with A&R interference and the specificity of the rhythms disappeared.

Over the years, Charles taught other musicians his tunes, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman and tenorist Jim Pepper among them. David Murray recorded his Maypole Dance, a hangover from the period when the islands were under British rule. (This song was called West Indian Folk Song on the recording in question in point of fact, DIW-809, a compact disc featuring Murray in 1983 as a member of Wilber Morris' Wilber Force.) However, it was not until the present date that an opportunity arose to fully explore Charles' material.

Growing up 'like nature boy' in St Croix, swimming and fishing to catch his own breakfast each day, Charles heard his first music from his father who also told stories by candlelight. Bass Space, done here as a light, airy dance with Wilber Morris playing a prominent role, is typical of one of these tales.

The original, which has Danish lyrics, (both his parents spoke the language), tells of the Devil appearing in human form with a flute. "In the meadow in the afternoon, the young kids would be watching the goats and sheep, the Devil sitting under a tree with a big burlap bag behind him. He'd play this tune for the young shepherds and call the kids closer. They'd come closer and closer. And he'd snatch 'em, put them in his burlap bag."

In addition to banjo and conga drum, the elder Charles played ukelele, tuning the string to four sung notes; 'I-Don't-Drink-Rum'. When Dennis acquired his first drumset, he remembered this method. Noted for his impeccably tuned instruments, he explained how he tuned his tom-toms in order to play 'Bom-bombom-bash!' in imitation of his father's procedure. Hearing these four notes as a major chord, he is able to play 'here comes the bride' on tom-toms and snare, (squeezing the floor tom with his left hand for the flattened third note). As a 'frustrated trombone player', (he studied the instrument for seven years), the drums must be in tune. "I hear the drums as notes, so I have all these notes to play with. I take time to tune them because if they're not right I can't play what I want to play." 

Raised in a Catholic convent run by Belgian nuns where the Mother Superior played piano, Charles was exposed to European music at an early age. He was something of a child-star, too, enlisted into St Croix' foremost band, the Rhythmakers, as a 7 year-old bongo player when caught sitting-in at rehearsal. In no time at all he had his own band uniform and was playing with them throughout the island until a fatal road accident altered his father's laissez faire attitude. "No more bongo, wongo fo yuh ass!" he told him, a saying which was to follow him all his life. To his amazement, he was greeted with those words on visiting the island almost 50 years on.

In 1945 he went to New York to join his mother who had left St Croix when he was three. The rough urban environment came as a shock. Harlemites were hostile to youths they perceived as 'countryfied' and Dennis and Huss were forced to take desperate measures for self-protection. But the city had its compensations: Charlie Parker at the Apollo and an older brother who took Dennis dancing at afternoon sessions featuring Fats Navarro, Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson. School was a block from Minton's Playhouse, and it was there, on the marquee, that he first saw the names of Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey.

But it was Roy Haynes who awakened the dormant drummer. "I was a drum freak, listening to everyone, but Roy, on Bud Powell's Wail! was playing something different. He had the slickest shit I ever heard. He gave me an inkling of playing double-time licks with the left hand. Horn players do it, but most drummers play on the beat. Roy Haynes, though, he doubled up. He gave me the germ of that idea." 

When he heard Blakey in 1954 he was captured for ever. He started to play 'Art,' he says simply, 'took my spirit.' 

The divergent trajectories of the Charles brothers' careers that intersect in this music, reflect the diversity and similarities of the Diasporean experience. While Dennis pursued bebop and 'hipness', Huss, two years his junior, stayed with the homeboys. From the late 1940s he played with calypso bands; one was led by Claude Brewster, an alto saxophonist from St Croix, another by a famous calypsonian, Macbeth the Great, father of percussionist Ralph McDonald.

A cousin, Raymond Charles, also played congas with Brewster, and it was from them that Dennis began relearning the music he'd forgotten to play. "Huss taught me how to play calypso, and I taught him how to play swing." Not to be overlooked, a frequent guest at these woodshedding sessions in a 'raggedy basement' on 118th Street was Cecil Taylor, with whom Dennis had just started to play. For a while, Taylor, Blakey and Charles roomed together downtown on Second Avenue.

Today, there is a highway in St Croix named after Queen Mary. The drummer's tribute to the legendary insurrectionist (who, incidentally, despite having killed several whites was pardoned by Denmark after a short exile and allowed to return), is in the tradition of acknowledging revolutionary leaders. As a question-and-answer piece, it is the one where he regrets having no additional horns. 'They ask her:

Queen Mary, girl, where you gonna burn? 

Queen Mary; girl, where you gonna burn? 

and she answers: 

Don't you ask me nothing at all, 

I want the match and oil. 

'Tis Basin jailhouse, a-dey the money dere.'

For the rest of the material, Stand Back comes from the repertoire of an entertainer named Holiday who "dressed real outlandish with long chains and all kind of raggedy clothes. A real creative dresser." 

Accompanied by two guitarists and another man blowing on an exhaust-pipe, he would crack jokes and tell stories before beginning to play. One of his characters was Johnny Cake-Boat who made a giant boat from pancake flour. Out on the ocean, the fish started eating the boat. Stand Back, sung slowly to guitar accompaniment, is more ribald:

Stand back, girl, stand back, girl, 

Give me the thing from behind. 

Some pay a dollar, some pay a dime, 

Some don't pay a single cent 

But they want the thing from behind.

It is played here as an up-tempo romp in keeping with the erotic sentiments of the original.

Charles was involved in an argument when Sweet Melanie jumped into his head. Originally a much faster number with elements of English folksong in the melody, he began to wonder how it would sound slowed-down.

Initially he had thought the calypso-style Rise Up, which exists elsewhere in the Caribbean as Mattie Grew, was concerned with rebellion. Researching further, however, he uncovered the words of an unfaithful husband, trying to persuade a lover to leave before his wife returns.

To create these inspired versions of the St Croix material, Charles recruited familiar New York figures. On bass is longtime associate Wilber Morris who has worked with him alongside Frank Lowe and Billy Bang and leads his own group, Wilber Force. Taking over the flute's traditional role is the Seattle saxophonist Booker T. Williams whose sonorities and passion call to mind the sanctified sound of Albert Ayler or Vernard Johnson. Huss Charles contributes to all but one track, but as Dennis, who has enough matenal for another album, puts it, "He didn't show all the rhythms he knows." The same could be said of the leader, still doing it after all these years.

1. Triangle 00:27

2. Sweet Melanie 15:55

3. Stand Back 05:39

4. Queen Mary 09:49

5. Bass Space 04:25

6. Rise Up 09:50

7. Afro-Amer.Ind 28:40

Booker T. tenor saxophone

Wilber Morris bass

Dennis Charles drums

Huss Charles congas

Daniel Carter, William Parker, Roy S. Campbell Jr., Rashid Bakr - Other Dimensions in Music (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"Other Dimensions In Music's free flowing ritualistic music, while having its own marked flavor shares specific characteristics with Ornette Coleman's acoustic model and the early works of the John Stevens/Johnny Dyani/Frode Gjetstad collective, Detail. From the former comes lyricism that vacillates between dancing and poignant, and nods to the familiar rhythm patterns most often associated with jazz. From the latter there's an open breathing quality and a tension created through the juxtaposition of seemingly divergent rhythmic implications from the bassist and drummer. Other Dimensions In Music brilliantly shadows delineations between solos, duets, trios, group interplay, a cappella statements and shifts in direction. The music happens, which is not imply any haphazardness, but rather its opposite as a myriad of possibilities are brought forth through the skills, perceptiveness and sensitivity of the players. Intensity – easily spotted in Campbell's pinched notes on the opener and Carter's squeals on the closer – is blended by restraint. Easing out from this stance are Bakr's abstemious yet replete a cappella statements. Riffs or patterns are, for the most part introduced and dropped so quickly that they thankfully provide no easy anchors or signposts in this opulent expression." 

Milo fine, Cadence, November 1991

We represent the sum total of the musical masters who played music before us and presently. We reflect the assimilation of their influences and our own experiences which have evolved to reach the present level of presentation and performance, which manifests in the music we create. The music is a spiritual communion which has transpired through us individually and collectively inspiring a togetherness which is definitely unique. The music we compose develops from this process of assimilation. 

Our talents and abilities have governed us to be able to play any style of music regardless of label and categories, at a moment's notice, at any given time or space in the universe. There are no barriers in time, space, and evolution. There is only eternal Freedom and "Other Dimensions in Music!"

Roy S. Campbell Jr.

Since the very beginning of my understanding of a musical concept, the unwritten, the spontaneous, seemed the most human approach to expression. Over the years, my associates and I have been sharpening and defining these skills. It probably is the most neglected conceptual approach. There remains much to accomplish within spontaneous music. This style is so dependent on so many factors; the people in the audience, how the musicians feel that day, how well the musicians are listening to each other, etcetra. It is a science of consciousness. 

Rashid Bakr 
8/19/89

Music has been a constant savior in my life. It has manifest itself through sound, silence, colors, shapes, thoughts, words, and symbols. Revealing itself most as it works through human beings who have made a commitment to life; Kenneth Patchen, Robert Hayden, Julius Lester, Lorraine Hansberry, June Jordan, Dave Budbill, Bruce Baille, Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, Jonas Mekas, Ted Joans, Lois Eby, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Milford Graves, Ornette Coleman, Steve McCall, Joseph Jarman, Gunter Hampel, Jeanne Lee, Marilyn Sontag, Emily Collins, Christopher Collins, Thomas Merton, Duke Ellington, T. Monk, Charlie Parker, Eric DoIphy, Billie Holiday, Jackson Pollock, Langston Hughes, and on and on. All inspirations, all have added to the art of living. Music needn't be labeled, coded or dissected.

Jazz, classical, rock, swing, avant-garde, free, bebop etc. What do these terms mean to a starving child or a sunrise dancing over a mountain? The music we have been involved in over the last 20 years has been constantly misunderstood by critics. It has been misread and maligned by beboppers and the traditionalists who see only one color as valid. 

It is the role of the artist (musician playing music in America) to dance, sing, shout and whisper about all that is wonderful, beautiful and majestic. To mirror and project the present and the future. To tell us the stories inside little childrens' hearts in the language of stone, wood and soil. The language of happiness, sadness and joy. It is the role of the artist to incite political, social and spiritual revolution. To awaken us from our sleep and never let us forget our obligations as human beings, to light the fire of human compassion.

When this inner flame is burning, man is uplifted to another state. His vision and senses are doubled and quadrupled. He sees, hears and feels things he never did before; the heat of the earth, the cry of living beings. This fire is stoked by conviction and communication with others.The idea is to live strongly within this vision, without compromises, even after being met by a cold, grey world that could be careless about vision. A world that makes insensitivity and murder of idealism a standard. It is the role of the artist to become a human being, to see the art of living as the only art.

The music on this album is defined by the strictest rules of beauty, each sound is ordered and cured with the energy of ancient spirits. The same spirits that guided J. Coltrane, Louis Armstrong and Bud Powell. The tradition is the tradition of life created, each second. Forever new, forever old, forever ageless. No sound is invalid. Only sounds that bring about darkness are invalid. Sounds that enlighten are infinite. We can put no limit to joy, or on our capacity to love. 

William Parker

dedication thRu(e) (th'Ru(e)) veil(ed) laughter 

veil nightmère world Night Mer 

Ocean Night(s) the cross is nigh all nigh 

veil after veil all penetrable 

impenetrable Ocean Cross the sea 

is nigh is nigh and never near all 

waves here all waves hear wave wave 

fan breathe entwined armies the 

brief special yarn eternal threat 

of light this present rescued from 

its past self I'm armed disarmed 

alarmed the other me other announces 

his her its eternal return arrival 

in on media tide from somewhere else 

beyond yet more here than any thing 

oh simple vex under-over-appreciated 

illusory real weight and see/sea now 

the future bringing us through 

it all the veils so many pages cages 

stages ages rages with little no(ne) 

alot or some wages our sails are 

billowy full with spirit wind(s) 

Daniel Carter

1. Tradition's Transitional Omissions Suite 23:00

2. Ascent (My Shadow Is a Cloud) 16:07

3. Sihu Chant for Sly Stone 15:28

4. Spirits Rise/Fall 15:54

Daniel Carter alto sax, tenor sax, flute, trumpet

Roy Campbell trumpet, fluegelhorn, recorder

William Parker bass

Rashid Bakr drums

Alex Lefaivre Quartet - YUL (Friday August 3, 2018)

New release from Montreal: Alex Lefaivre Quartet - YUL

AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE AUGUST 3rd 2018

Drawing his inspiration from Montreal’s distinct urban energy, bass player Alex Lefaivre presents a series of modern jazz compositions written for some of his home town’s most original musicians, notably Erik Hove on alto saxophone, Nicolas Ferron on guitar as well as Mark Nelson on drums. The lyrical, song-like melodies develop over interesting forms that leave a lot of room for the group to interact and showcase their conversational improvisations.  

Taking its name from Montreal's airport code, YUL takes the listener on a cinematic trip through the city, where dreamy, hazy summer vibes are intertwined with a gritty, metropolitan edge. A highlight of this set is a surprising cover of John Carpenter's theme to his cult-classic 1978 horror movie, Halloween.  

Alex Lefaivre is a founding member of Montreal's Parc X Trio, one of Canada’s premier jazz groups. Parc X Trio have released 7 recordings, the latest of which, Dream, is released through Challenge Records International. They have toured across Canada, Mexico, the USA and Europe. Alex is also a founding member of Multiple Chord Music (MCM), an independent jazz  label that currently holds 19 artists on its roster and has released over 30 recordings.  

For more information including sound clips and photos please visit alexlefaivre.com

Puisant son inspiration dans l’énergie urbaine distincte de Montréal, le bassiste Alex Lefaivre présente une série de compositions jazz mettant en vedette certains des musiciens les plus originaux de sa ville natale, notamment Erik Hove au saxophone alto, Nicolas Ferron à la guitare et Mark Nelson à la batterie. Les thèmes mélodiques et chantants se développent sur des formes atypiques qui laissent énormément de place pour l’interaction musicale du groupe durant leurs improvisations. 

Tirant son nom du code de l'aéroport de Montréal, YUL nous amène sur un voyage cinématographique à travers la ville où l'atmosphère rêveuse des chaudes  nuits d'été se mélange à l'attitude explosive de la métropole. Parmi les huit pièces de l'album se trouve une reprise surprenante du theme de Halloween (1978), le film d'horreur culte de John Carpenter.  

Alex Lefaivre est membre fondateur du Parc X trio, un des groupes de jazz Québécois les plus reconnus de leur génération. À ce jour, Parc X Trio a lancé 7 albums, dont le dernier, Dream, est distribué par le label néerlandais Challenge Records International. Ils ont tourné au Canada, au Mexique, aux États- Unis et en Europe. Ils ont également remporté plusieurs prix et distinctions dont le Grand Prix de Jazz TD au Festival International de Jazz de Montréal en 2010 et l’album Jazz de l’année 2017 au GAMIQ.  

Alex Lefaivre est également membre fondateur de la maison de disques jazz Multiple Chord Music (MCM), qui compte plus de 30 sorties avec une vingtaine d’artistes dont Benjamin Deschamps, Rachel Therrien, François Jalbert & Jérôme Beaulieu, Frédéric Alarie et Rémi-Jean LeBlanc.  

Pour plus d'information, incluant des extraits sonores et des photos, s'il vous plaît consulter alexlefaivre.com

1 - The Righteous (7:00)

2 - Halloween (7:48)

3 - Estelle (6:23)

4 - The Juggernaut (7:47)

5 - Nostalgia (6:28)

6 - Skyline (6:53)

7 - Cascade (7:09)

8 - YUL (8:23)

Erik Hove: Alto Saxophone

Nicolas Ferron: Guitar

Mark Nelson: Drums

Alex Lefaivre: Electric Bass and Compositions

alexlefaivre.com

Aaron Shragge & Ben Monder - This World Of Dew (Human Resource Records July 20, 2018)

This World of Dew is Aaron Shragge’s third release with Ben Monder

The duo project, an exploratory, meditative collaboration, has been praised as  “…lyrical and heartwarming…” (Jazz Times) and “thoroughly modern with a definitive sound...” (The Birmingham Times). 

The album features guitarist Ben Monder’s otherworldly harmonic virtuosity in expansive sonic textures that highlight Shragge’s subtle and distinctive lyrical voice on the shakuhachi and dragon mouth trumpet (a custom microtonal instrument).   

The fourteen new compositions by Shragge are inspired by the writings of both ancient and modern poets: Kobayashi Issa, Matsuo Bashō, Li Po, Nishiyama Sōin and Charles Bukowski.

Tracks 2-7 make up “This World of Dew Suite” which follows the emotional arc of poet Kobahashi Issa’s grief as he mourned the loss of his young daughter. What ties all these compositions together is how they explore themes of loneliness, perseverance and impermanence. 

This World of Dew will be released worldwide on Friday, July 20th 2018 on Human Resource Records (NYC. )  

There will be a CD release celebration on July 20th at the Jazz Gallery in New York City and on July 21st at La Vitrola in Montreal, Canada. 

Track Listing

1. Companion  5:34

This World of Dew Suite

2. By Rain and Mud  0:49

3. A Tiny Boat  7:01

4. This World of Dew  1:43

5. There is Always One You Follow  4:19

6. Stink Worm  2:40

7. Pretending Wisdom  2:27

8. Roll The Dice  4:14

9. Nothing In The Cry  3:24

10. It’s Ours  3:01

11. Old Dust 5:24

12. Settling  1:44

13. Blue Bird  5:52

14. Sun Coming Down  3:50

Aaron Shragge - Dragon Mouth Trumpet,  Flugelhorn, Shakuhachi

Ben Monder - Guitar

Alain Mallet - Mutt Slang (ETrain Records 2018)

ACCLAIMED ADVENTUROUS COMPOSER/PIANIST ALAIN MALLET RELEASES GENRE-BENDING, CROSS-CULTURAL “MUTT SLANG”  TWO CD-SET AVAILABLE IN STEREO AND SURROUND SOUND ON ETRAIN RECORDS

“Mutt Slang came from the idea that so much of our music is the product of a unique mix of seemingly unconnected influences, when, in reality, they emanate from that untethered spiritual expanse that we all tap into” --Alain Mallet 

ALAIN MALLET has enjoyed a very successful career as a pianist and composer. He’s been a sideman for such high-profile acts as Madeleine Peyroux, Phil Woods, and Paul Simon, and his compositions have been recorded by jazz greats like Gary Burton, Dave Samuels, and Paquito D’Rivera, among many others. But until now, he’s never recorded his own CD as a leader. MUTT SLANG is a genre-bending, eclectic project suffused with the diverse cultural influences that have shaped Mallet’s musically adventurous spirit. 

Mallet was born in Andernos, a small French village not too far from Bordeaux. He was born with a birth defect that left him paralyzed on his left side for the first year of his life. Fortunately, the paralysis wasn’t permanent, but it did take a great deal of effort for him to gain complete mobility in his left arm. His father was an amateur pianist who loved jazz, and his parents started him on music lessons as a form of physical therapy. Despite the difficulty of playing the piano, he persevered, hoping someday to emulate his heroes Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner. By the time he was 16 years old, his disability was far behind him, and he had become a serious musician, playing in a band. He left France in 1983 to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and remained in the country to pursue a career in music. 

The music on MUTT SLANG reflects Mallet’s deep philosophical views on art and culture. “MUTT SLANG came from the idea that so much of our music is the product of a unique mix of seemingly unconnected influences, when, in reality, they emanate from that untethered spiritual expanse that we all tap into,” says Mallet. “It’s like an alternate consciousness which seems to supersede all other moral, racial, religious and political prejudices, as well as geographical boundaries. To be a musician means to unravel the mystery of a language spoken by only a handful, but seemingly understood by everyone. There is something incredibly powerful about that idea because it challenges the very concept of cultural purity, which is a myth. At the core of MUTT SLANG there’s a desire to rise above individual agendas to let the common consciousness prevail. It’s a multi-cultural transcendence of sorts.” 

Mallet says music on this project was influenced by Miles Davis’ 1958 sessions, Jacques Brel, the Globe Unity Orchestra, Peter Gabriel, Elis Regina, Keith Jarrett’s American quartet, Stevie Wonder, Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto, and Salif Keita, to name just a few. Indeed, from the opening tune “Till I Dance (In Your Arms Again),” which is written in 5/4 but still manages to have a tango feel, to “Road Signs,” an Israeli pop hit from the 70s and sung here in the original Hebrew, to “Salif,” a largely improvised tune that honors Salif Keita, an afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali, Mallet takes the listener on a musical excursion that crosses geographical and cultural borders, revealing imaginative and unexpected landscapes of sound. 

The rhythm section on MUTT SLANG comprises some of the top players on the scene today, including veteran percussionist JAMEY HADDAD (Dave Liebman, Simon Shaheen, Paul Simon), bassist PETER SLAVOV (Joe Lovano), and drummer ABRAHAM ROUNDS (Meshell Ndegeocello, Seal). 

After touring with various artists for many years, Mallet had enough of being on the road and decided to return to teaching. As a professor in the ensemble and piano departments at Berklee, his alma mater, he interacts daily with the rising stars of jazz and decided to add their talents to this project. LAYTH SIDIQ, a violinist originally from Jordan, is featured on “Adama,” a song written by TALI RUBINSTEIN, who sings on this number and plays recorder on other tunes. She also wrote the tune “Alone.” SONG YI JEON, a singer and composer who hails from South Korea, wrote and sings on “Spring.” Also of note are VERONICA MORSCHER, an Austrian native who sings in Hebrew on “Alone,” SAMUEL BATISTA on alto sax, DANIEL ROTEM on tenor sax, JACOB MATHEUS on acoustic and electric guitars, LEANDRO PELLEGRINO who also plays electric guitar, NÊGAH, who is an incredible hand percussionist born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, and GONZALO GRAU, a multi-instrumentalist from Caracas, Venezuela. 

MUTT SLANG is a two-CD set. The first CD is a standard, high quality, stereo recording. The second CD was engineered with additional audio channels for surround sound by ELLIOT SCHEINER, the music producer, mixer and engineer who has received 25 Grammy Award nominations, 8 of which he won, as well as several Emmy Awards, among other awards. According to Mallet, “Elliot had the idea to make a surround sound version of the music, and if someone of Elliot Scheiner’s stature has a suggestion, it probably behooves you to go along with it.” 

It has taken over 25 years as a busy musician for Mallet to finally decide it was time to put out his own CD and formulate a vision that would truly capture his own, unique voice and outlook. MUTT SLANG is a project that seemingly embraces the whole world, yet it’s articulated with a decidedly American jazz accent by a masterful pianist joined by a coterie of veteran and up-and-coming jazz luminaries.

1. Till I Dance (In Your Arms Again) (10:44)

2. Blessed Be The Empty Soul (8:47)

3. Road Signs (6:20)

4. Alone (1:52)

5. The Long Walk Home (Salif Prelude) (2:08)

6. Salif (8:16)

7. Adama (5:58)

8. Spring (8:53)

9. Elis (5:09)

10. BAtukAdA (1:12)

11. This Is When I Think About You (8:11)

ALAIN MALLET  piano, keys, electronics, lead vocal (12)

PETER SLAVOV acoustic bass, solo (bonus track)

JAMEY HADDAD percussion, kanjira solo (3)

LAYTH SIDIQ violin, solo (7)

TALI RUBINSTEIN recorders, solo (2), lead vocal (7), vox (3)

SONG YI JEON lead vocals, voice solo (8)

VERONICA MORSCHER trans-oceanic lead vocal (3)

SAMUEL BATISTA alto sax, solo (1)

DANIEL ROTEM  tenor sax, solos (6)(11)

ABRAHAM ROUNDS drum set

JACOB MATHEUS  acoustic guitar (1), electric guitar (2,3,7,8,10)

LEANDRO PELLEGRINO electric  guitar (1,6,9) solos (1,6)

NÊGAH pandeiro (1) congas (5)

GONZALO GRAU  xekere (6)

Don't miss Nucleus "Live In Bremen" for just $7.00!

Eskorzo da la bienvenida al verano con "Zona Caliente"

Le guste o no a la gente esto es Zona Caliente...

Le ha costado llegar, pero el verano ya está aquí, oficiosa y oficialmente. Y con las alertas por altas temperaturas vuelven a la carga los Eskorzo, con la quinta entrega de "Alerta Caníbal" bajo el brazo, "Zona Caliente".

¡Dentro vídeo!

Rodado en Taganga y Bogotá (Colombia), Sierra Nevada (Granada) y Mónsul (Cabo de Gata), el video, al igual que sus predecesores "Los Besos Que Me Dabas" y "Cumbia Caníbal", ha sido realizado por Mariquilla Cuevas. Hace apenas unas semanas "Cumbia Caníbal" le valía el primer premio en el V Concurso Nacional de Videoclips Granajoven, donde competía frente a más de mil piezas presentadas.

Tras terminar la gira de salas de la "Alerta Caníbal Tour", donde el cartel de "Sold Out" ha sido una tónica constante, los granadinos se embarcan ahora en la gira de festivales, que les llevará por algunas de las principales citas estivales de la península, y también a Bélgica y Holanda, donde les esperan los espectaculares Polé Polé y Zwarte Cross.

30/06/18 Higuera de la Sierra (Huelva) - Senderos de Música

07/07/18 Torre del Mar (Málaga) - Weekend Beach Festival

09/07/18 Teruel - Peña El Ajo

11/07/18 Pamplona - Herri Sanferminak

13/07/18 Villafranca del Bierzo (León) - Fiestizaje

14/07/18 Gante (Bélgica) - Polé Polé Festival

15/07/18 Lievelde (Holanda) - Zwarte Cross Festival

27/07/18 Escañuela (Jaén) - Festival Víncula Rock

28/07/18 Tavernes de la Valldigna (Valencia) - Iboga Summer Festival

11/08/18 Rota (Cádiz) - Brota Música

16/08/18 Villena (Alicante) - Rabolagartija

07/09/18 Boimorto (A Coruña) - Festival de la Luz

08/09/18 Granada - Zaidín Rock

29/09/18 Beniaján (Murcia) - Cordillera Sur Murcia Fest

04/10/18 Sevilla - Caravan Sur

05/10/18 Córdoba - Sala M100

06/10/18 Madrid - TBC

27/10/18 La Laguna (Tenerife) - Aguere Cultural

La postal

Cada canción de "Alerta Caníbal" va acompañada de una ilustración exclusiva de Luis Toledo (Prisamata Studio), todas ellas incluidas en una exclusiva edición lenticular del disco. Aquí tienes la Zona Caliente.

Haz click aquí para verlas todas

De Rooleros: Info Junio

Presentamos Reflex!

Nuestro tercer disco de estudio

en

Emergente de Almagro

el

Sábado 30 de junio 21 hs puntual

Francisco Acuña de Figueroa 1030

Anticipadas disponibles!

Precio promocional $100, 

no dejen de pedirnos la suya via mail o face

Misma noche

Con todo el funk

estrenarán nuevo material

la gente de ...

Fiestón se va a armar!

Más info en Rooleros presenta Reflex

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Reflex

para todes!

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