| HK's 10 Best CD's of 1997 East Bay Express DUCK BAKER: Spinning Song (AVAN) Pianist Herbie Nichols is less well-known than Thelonious Monk, to whom he is often compared. His angular lines and wrong is right chord changes certainly do break the established jazz rules while remaining within the jazz continuum just as Monk did. In the notes to this, Duck Baker's acoustic fingerstyle guitar resettings of Nichols' piano music, Duck points out that Nichols was a much less conservative improviser than Monk and that Nichols would continue to explore in the improvisational as well as compositional dimensions of his music. Baker has dramatically accomplished a triple-whammy here: managing to transfer the intricacy of Nichols' piano music to guitar, dealing with the compositional implications of Nichols structures, and improvising creatively on guitar through and out of Nichols' forms. This CD deserves a review the length of this entire article to do it justice. It's great - buy the CD- read Duck's notes, listen to it, marvel and then maybe go out and buy a Herbie Nichols CD, too.
ANTHONY BRAXTON QUARTET: (Santa Cruz) 1993 (hat ART) In decades to come this band will probably be described as Braxton's classic quartet. Disbanded shortly after this gig, they provided some of the most elegant and inspired explorations of Braxton's visions of colliding musical universes. I count at least 13 CDs in the quartet's discography. This is probably the best of all of them. Recorded immediately after a 6 night run at Yoshi's and with Braxton's various saxes just tuned up by a woodwind tech, the band plays at the very top of its virtuoso form. Braxton has always maintained that his music has "community implications" and spiritual dimensions. On this recording you can hear the patrons of Santa Cruz's Kuumbwa jazz center cheering wildly and reacting to the living spirit of the music with heartfelt passion. And that's without the costumes, theatricality and words that enabled similar dynamics at many Sun Ra performances - the the Braxton Quartet's music was the sole channel. I can personally testify as I was at this show that the audience-quartet dynamic had more in common with the dynamics in the sacred steel congregations written about just below than your typical jazz club scene. And that's an unusual and special case for experimental music. This CD is especially unique in its documentation of those dynamics.
THE CAMPBELL BROTHERS: Pass Me Not (Arhoolie) Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie records has made a real discovery in the "Sacred Steel" guitarists of the state of Florida; where It seems that the electric steel guitar has replaced the organ as the instrument to accompany gospel worship services in certain regional congregations. This is my favorite of the 4 CDs Arhoolie has released this year documenting this unique Afro-American tradition. The Campbell Brothers are younger than some of their contemporary players and Chuck Cambell's distorted fuzz-wah slide stylings become almost indistinguishable for a human voice at many moments. He can also be as wild and unpredictable as Berkeley's own lap steel master Freddie Roulette. This is intense, ecstatic stuff and these releases are a welcome reminder that music can still be a powerful uplifting experience in the American late 90's.
MILES DAVIS: Various 70's electric period reissues (CBS SONY) The releases I'm talking about are: Agharta, Pangea, In Concert, Get Up With It, On the Corner, Tribute to Jack Johnson, Dark Magus, Live Evil, At the Fillmore, etc . Sony released 5 or 6 of these in the USA this summer with quite a bit of promotion. Miles' 70's electric period is argued by some to be his most creative and original music; others find it completely worthless. I'm with the former opinion and I think that a quarter of a century later, it's time to look at this wonderful music from a new perspective and see what was going on. A lot of what's going on today in Hip Hop, Ambient, Acid Jazz, and other "new" contemporary forms can be heard to have it's origins here in Miles' dark electric mixture of funk, Stockhausen, jazz, African rhythms and wild electric guitar esthetics. Sony has been releasing all of these albums in new re-mastered Japanese versions.The Japanese import releases of Pangea and Agharta shine the brightest, for they have been remixed with a new clarity and many more minutes of extra material added.
TISZIJI MUNOZ: Death Is a Friend of Mine (ANAMI) I would call Tisziji a Coltrane guitarist in the same classification with such players as John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Greenwich and Shawn Lane (whose Time is the Enemy CD is another of the finest guitar CDs of 1997). They all share a warmth and musical spirituality that grew from the music of saxophonist John Coltrane. Munoz certainly stands at an equal level with the other guitarists I just mentioned. He's made 5 or 6 CDs on his own label and toured with Pharoah Sanders; despite this he is undeservedly lacking in notoriety. A singing tone, great compositions, unlikely fingerings, lines and ideas make for a surprising, original and moving listening experience. This, my favorite recording of Munoz to date, is probably not available in stores but can be mail ordered from Anami Music, PO Box 712, Schenectady, NY 12301, telephone: 518-346-3928.
SIMON SHAHEEN & VISHWA MOHAN BHATT: Saltanah (Water Lilly Acoustics) Since his Grammy-winning A Meeting by the River with Ry Cooder, Bhatt has become one of the most recorded Indian musicians; both in the Indian classical and the cross-cultural meeting / clash of cultures genres of of world music. Until now now none of his collaborative projects have been nearly as successful or satisfying as A Meeting by the River. This is his finest recording to date and certainly one of the most successful cross-cultural collaborations I've ever heard. On his CD with Cooder we got the chance to hear Bhatt play circles around Ry with his hyper-advanced slide technique. This time we get to hear Shaheen, an oud player and master of Arabic traditions, run circles around Bhatt. With the addition of Indian bansuri flute and South Indian style violin a more varied palate of timbre is splashed across the filigrees of this meeting of Indian raga and Arabic maqam. Also the finest of engineer/producer Kavi Alexander's distinguished audiophile recordings. A++.
SPONTANEOUS MUSIC ENSEMBLE: Quintessence 1 & 2 (Emanem) I think that this 1974 performance by SME leader-drummer John Stevens along with saxophonists Evan Parker and Trevor Watts, guitarist Derek Bailey and cellist Kent Carter is just about the finest single performance of free-improvised music that I know of. The late Stevens was one of the primary forces behind the development of the English free improvisation movement that took the Afro-American free jazz developed by Coleman, Taylor, Ra, Ayler and Coltrane off into completely unexplored territory. On this CD you here musicians playing music that is completely and unprecedented. Five players making the biggest musical paradigm jump that I know of. Difficult to access for many, I know, but for me there is more MUSIC and IMPROVISATION here per second than just about any other recording that I've ever heard. A few more improvisation plugs while I'm on this topic: two great improv websites: http://www.shef.ac.uk/misc/rec/ps/efi/ehome.html and http://astro.berkeley.edu/~plonsey/beanbenders.html; two extremely fine recordings of performances from 1989 and 1974 by guitarist Bailey made available this year were: LACE (Emanem) and Improvisation (Artis).
VARIOUS ARTISTS: All India Radio Archive Releases (SCI) I suppose that most consumers know that CDs cost only a dollar or two to manufacture and probably wonder where all those extra dollars in the retail price go to. Here's a series of more than 75 CDs of North Indian Classical music that sell for only $5 each. You get some of the greatest vocalists of the 20th century playing back in the late 50's and early 60's for All India Radio live broadcasts. Artists like: Ali Akbar Khan, Baba Allauddin Khan, Nikhil Banerjee, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, and many others. You get these folks playing at the peak of their musical maturity and power. Unfortunately you also get noisy, hissy recordings that sound like they came from the 1930's or 1940's; sloppily edited and presented with very little or no information or annotation. For me, the great music and low price wins out and I've found these to be essential listening. Maybe check a few out at $5 a pop and see what you think. Few stores carry them, though. I suggest that the most convenient and economical place to purchase the above and virtually all other current releases of Indian music is at Shrimati's Ltd., 2011 University Ave., Berkeley, telephone: 548-6220.
MIKE WATT: Contemplating the Engine Room (Columbia) It seems like years since I've heard a really great rock album with fine playing, song writing and singing. This is once great CD and as unlikely as it may seem this project is a "punk rock opera" about three guys in the engine room of a boat... or is it three guys in a band? Watt blends his dad's naval experiences with his own as a member of the Minutemen to celebrate the idea of three people playing together. Wonderful guitar work from Nels Cline and solid and innovative drumming from Stephen Hodges round out this trio with bassist Watt. Catchy, abrasive, fun and seductive; all at the same time.
DAVEY WILLIAMS: "Charmed I'm Sure" (Ecstatic Peace!) Back in the mid 1970's Eugene Chadbourne, Davey Williams and I formed a kind of triumvirate of the first American extended technique, guitar free improvisors. Eugene and I have gone on to release over a hundred recodings each. Williams, who is just as interesting as either of us, has released relatively few recordings. He's known mainly as a member of the group/duo TRANS with LaDonna Smith and as a player who uses all manner of objects (vibrators, toys, kitchen appliances, fish, tools, etc.) to excite the strings of his guitar in the quest of surrealistically otherworldly sounds. Davey had one great solo LP, now forgotten, more than a decade ago. This is his first solo guitar CD. Solo with overdubbing. Sometimes rock or blues inflected and always startlingly original this CD proves again that Davey is a true master of guitar insanity and beauty. My other two favorite "outside guitar" CDs of the year are: JOE MORRIS: No Vertigo (Leo) ROGER SMITH: Unexpected Turns (EMANEM). Both feature wildly precise and original solo guitar work. It's sad that all three of these are really difficult to find. Perhaps just turning up as 3 or 4 copies each at Amoeba and then disappearing into local unobtainability. Like many of the other recordings on this list t would be truly worth the search to find them though, I say.
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