Back at last... three tracks... Alice Coltrane... Jerry Lee Lewis... Alexander Von Schlippenbach...

A crazy weekend culminating in a great gig at Taylor John's where Michael Gira was incandescently brilliant left me even further in the hole physically... mainly self-inflicted... just starting to pick up things again... review tomorrow plus photos...

I have no idea where I acquired this – searching for another album I found this single track by Alice Coltrane, a re-recording of the title track from her husband's somewhat famous album 'A Love Supreme.' This really shouldn't work - but it does... A swirling orchestral beginning then an invocation from her guru Swami Satchidananda edging into New Age territory (but each to their own, hey?) until the familiar theme surfaces on electronic keyboard/organ and the rhythm picks up – Alice soon plunges into more aggressive figures, a mirror of the searching, shattering brilliance of her late husband. Leroy Jenkins steps up to saw away into increasingly lengthening spirals, melodic cascades again matching the soaring lines of the original. The organ returns to damp the emotion down as more peaceful orchestral figures commence, shot through with ascending/descending keyboard and the Swami returns briefly to take it out. Shh/Peaceful...

One of my first loves (musical, musical!) - Jerry Lee Lewis. The Killer. Southern white fried country blues boogie rock and roll... A firm loping swagger through the old 12 bar 'Matchbox' from a rough and ready live show recorded at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1964, backed by the Nashville Teens. As Edwin C. Faust said in a review:

'What kind of middle-of-the-road, pussy willow, drag ass society do we live in where “Jerry Lee Lewis At The Star Club” isn’t the number one top-selling live album of all time!?' (From Stylus magazine article here... ).

Indeed.

Alexander Von Schlippenbach and the boys – Evan Parker and Paul Lovens – one of the longest-lasting bands in European free jazz. Recorded live in Berlin in 1975 with Peter Kowald on bass added. This is 'Black Holes,' a title which evokes science and mystery simultaneously.. Scrawl and scratch and bang by sax, bass and percussion/drums until the piano finally comes in - minimally and soon dropping out as ultra high notes take over the sonic area - like a hip penny whistle. Sparse piano returns, repeated single notes until a final fade. Laid back stuff by this band's standards, with a reverse climax almost as the busy beginning slowly falls backwards.

Andrew Hill – an alternate take of 'The Griots' from his 1964 album 'Andrew!!' John Gilmore, who plays on this album, is not present here – just a quarter with Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Chambers and Richard Davis. Hill solos first, plunging into the changes, suddenly back-spinning a long cascading line – sparkling stuff. Davis, who is superb in his underpinning throughout, takes a scampering solo after the pianist. Hill returns until Hutcherson comes in to restate the theme. Spikily brilliant.

Alice Coltrane
Alice Coltrane (org) Reggie Workman (b) Ben Riley (d) Elayne Jones (tim) Frank Lowe (saxes, perc) Swami Satchidananda (voice) Leroy Jenkins (v)
A Love Supreme
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Jerry Lee Lewis (p, v) plus Nashville Teens
Matchbox
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Alexander Von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach (p) Evan Parker (ss, ts) Peter Kowald (b) Paul Lovens (perc)
Black holes
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Andrew Hill
Andrew Hill (p) Bobby Hutcherson (vib) Richard Davis (b) Joe Chambers (d)
The Griots (alternate take)
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Steve Coleman... Alice Coltrane... Nels Cline/Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano... Billy Bang... Ornette Coleman...

'Plagal Transitions.' Introduced by solo sax, before the funk groove starts up – with an echo of Ronald Shannon Jackson's electric lineups from way back... criss-crossing of lines by sax and trumpet before a trumpet solo joined by a harmonica and rippling keyboard who take over as the trumpet drops out – a latin-y groove overlaying in the back from the added percussion. Saxophone now overlapped by a sudden burst of vocalese, bwibbidy bee a roonie etc that subsides – then horns behind the sax. Some fascinating arranging going on here – the harmonica weaves in and out... An object lesson in combining 'jazz' (a word he would resist, but I use it here as convenient shorthand) and funk with a suppleness of rhythm usually lacking in these confrontations/combinations. An interesting tapestry ... shades of Ornette's linearity/harmolodics maybe, but Coleman has been an interesting figure in striking out into different territory – more concerned with harmony than Coleman, for example – a deep and fascinating theoretician. His web site here has much explication of his methods – and a stack of free music if you scroll through...

Dig infinity... as the late Lord Buckley once said... The late Alice Coltrane with her son Ravi and I noticed in checking the album details that on American Amazon one reviewer suggested that the album was 'good music for making sandwiches.' Very Zen – or just a put-down? Opening on piano, swirling through the treble and a deep bass note heralds the saxophone of Ravi...soulful meditation reminiscent of the father in ballad mood... the tempo firms up – her piano has quite a bit of bite... his soprano is intriguing, given the burden of history that is lashed to it... a welcome late return, but sadly, Alice died a couple of months ago...

Billy Bang from 1998, fronting a quartet. This is a burner – 'Bama Swing.' Bang always plays with a deep fire and intensity... this track is within conventional post-bop parameters and swings mightily - yet violin and D.D. Jackson's piano piano edge out into wilder territory here and there... Bang is an interesting representative of the 'loft jazz' era which he immersed himself in after his traumatic tour of duty in Vietnam – a driven man... here is a good interview with Fred Jung which explains more...

I mentioned Wally Shoup in a recent post – here he is with Nels Cline and flavour of the month drummer Chris Corsano – who gets around... from playing with Sunburned Hand of Man to free jazz wahooers like Paul Flaherty... this is short and fiery, the guitar tracking the alto's squeals on 'Lake of Fire Memories.' High frequency buzzing finally joined by Corsano's torrential drums underneath...

Some Ornette, from a more obscure album: 'Chappaqua Suite.' The music originally commissioned for Conrad Rooks' film that he never used in the end, preferring some Ravi Shankar. If I remember, he said that it was too good for his movie... about right. On a movie trivia note, according to the cast list, Ornette appeared in the film - as 'Peyote Eater.' Far out... This is track two, which would have been the complete second side of the first album in the original 2 lp set. Ornette bluesy across the steady bass and drums – and the vertical stripes of the ensemble that lay long-held dissonant chords behind him as he dances around and across... echoes of the third stream in this scoring (by Eric Dolphy – who also did similar work on John Coltrane's Africa/Brass sessions – which I must dig out again soon...), but the drums on the bottom and Ornette on the top with it all held together by David Izenson's bass give this music a pulse and vitality that much of the third stream lacked. A back-beat creeps in – to be turned round and about – as Ornette roams the wide open spaces – the ensemble are used very spartanly throughout, more brief punctuation than continual grammatical overlay... Moffett is especially good, booting it all along in grand style...


In the Videodrome...

Corsano with Sunburned...

...Patton and Zorn...

... a clip from 'Chappaqua' featuring the Fugs...

Steve Coleman
Steve Coleman (as) Ravi Coltrane (ts) Jonathan Finlayson, Ralph Alessi (t) Gregoire Maret (hca) Dana Leong (tr) Mat Maneri (vi) Craig Taborn (key) Anthony Tidd (el-b) Drew Gress (b) Dafnis Prieto (d) Ramon Garcia Perez (perc) Yosvany Terry (shekere) + various vocalists
Plagal Transitions
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Alice Coltrane
Alice Coltrane (p) Ravi Coltrane (ts, ss) Charlie Haden (b) Jack DeJohnette (d)
Translinear Light
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Nels Cline (g) Wally Shoup (as) Chris Corsano (d)
Lake of Fire Memories
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Billy Bang (v) D.D. Jackson (p) Akira Ando (b) Ronnie Burrage (d)
Bama Swing
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Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman (as) David Izenson (b) Charles Moffett (d) Pharoah Sanders: tenor saxophone; 11 piece orchestra, arrangements by Eric Dolphy
Chappaqua Suite Part Two
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