Tag: Free Jazz

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Gato Barbieri – El Pampero (1971)

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Jorge Ben needs a Jorge Break. And so I bring you…


Gato Barbieri
“El Pampero”
Released 1971 as Flyind Dutchman FD-10151

This reissues 2002 BMG France / RCA Victor Gold Series

1. El Pampero (Gato Barbieri)
2. Mi Buenos Aires Querido (Carlos Gardel – Alfredo Lepera)
3. Brasil (Aldo Cabral – Benedicto Lacerda)
4. El Arriero (Atahualpa Yupanqui)
5. El Gato (Oliver Nelson)

Tracks 1 through 4 recorded on June 18, 1971 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland

Personnel: Lonnie Liston Smith, piano; Chuck Rainey, electric bass; Bernard Purdie, drums; Sonny Morgan, conga; Nana Vasconcelos, percussion, berimbau; Gato Barbieri, saxophone, vocal on track 4.

Track 5 recorded in May, 1972 at RCA Studios, NYC. Personnel includes:
Romeo Pengue, alto flute, English horn; Phil Bodner, flute, alto flute; Danny Bank, bass clarinet; Oliver Nelson, alto saxophone, conductor, arranger; Hank Jones, piano; David Spinozza, guitar; Ron Carter, bass; Bernard Purdie, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion.

Phenomenal live set from Gato Barbieri at the peak of his feline prowess and with an amazing ensemble that was essentially a pick-up gig for most of them. But not just any pick-up band, no siree! Bernand “Pretty” Purdie on skins along with Chuck Rainey on bass (playing the festival with Aretha Franklin and King Curtis) aren’t exactly some music-school hacks you pick up at the bus station on the way to the show. Lonnie Liston Smith and the one and only Nana Vasconcelos were the only regular band members on stage with Gato, and both give it everything they’ve got. In spite of being improvised by the seat-of-their-pants, the only time I notice the Purdie/Rainey rhythm section lag, if not quite falter, is in the beginning section of Brasil where Rainey comes in a measure behind Pretty Purdie’s triumphant drum entrance about three minutes in. Other than that, they sound like they had all been playing together for years. The ambient place-making of “Mi Buenos Aires Querido” is as evocative a piece as Gato ever played. But the highlight for me is “El Ariero”, a song by the very influential Argentinian composer and writer Atahualp Yupanqui. Gato had also recorded in the studio and released it on the album “Fenix” earlier in the year, where I think it has a little more *power* or some similar descriptor, particularly the vocal, but this version has a nice spontaneous intensity to it. The last track, written by frequent collaborator Oliver Nelson, is a bonus cut to this CD, having appeared on a Flying Dutchman compilation of the same name (El Gato) where it was the sole original, unreleased track. This reissue does us the favor of placing it here, and saving us from looking at the awful front cover design of Barbieri turning into a cat, werewolf-style. The lineup is a considerably augmented ensemble which now includes Ron Carter on bass and Airto Moreira on percussion in place of Nana. A beautiful tune, particularly the double flute arrangements.

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Gato Barbieri – Fenix (1971)

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Gato Barbieri
“Fenix”
Released 1971 on Flying Dutchman (FD 10158)

Having already established himself in the vanguard of free jazz (stints with Don Cherry, an appearance on the landmark ‘Liberation Music Orchestra’ from Charlie Haden / Carla Bley), Barbieri was producing some incredible work as a bandleader by the late 60s. For some reason this album feels like an appropriate “holiday season” album to me, whatever your particular cosmological inclinations might be. The album is really part of a series of a politically-engaged, Pan-American albums whose musical sensibilities were damn unique. Barbieri’s riffing rarely drifts from the fiercer side of a Coltrane / Pharoah orientation. It’s soulful, spiritual jazz, but also angry. With Lenny White on drums, Lonnie Liston Smith on keys, and Naná Vasconcelos on congas and berimbau (Naná was, and still is, the most capable and expressive player of this instrument), you really can’t go wrong with this record. One really interesting cut is the song ‘Falsa Baiana’, written as a samba by Geraldo Pereira and made famous by Roberto Silva (to be reinterpreted later as bossa nova by João Gilberto, and in MPB’s idiom by Gal Costa and others). Gato’s rendition here, one of the calmer tracks on the album, is almost unrecognizable as he circles around the chord changes and doesn’t play the main melody until three minutes into the song. This album is a treasure for the ears and the soul, enjoy!

The BMG France reissue has the original sleeve notes from Michael Cuscuna and some newer commentary in French that I can’t really read.

Gato Barbieri – Fenix (1971) in 320kbs em pee three
Gato Barbieri – Fenix (1971) in FLAC LOSSLESS AUDIO format
PART ONE //// PART TWO

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Pharoah Sanders – Live at the East (2007) 320kbs

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Photobucket
Pharoah Sanders – Live At The East

01 – Healing Song
02 – Memories Of J.W. Coltrane
03 – Lumkili

Pharoah Sanders – tenor sax
Harold Vic – tenor sax, voices
Marvin Peterson – trumpet
Carlos Garnett – flute, voices
Joseph Bonner – piano, harmonium
Stanley Clarke – bass
Cecil McBee – bass
Norman Connors – drums
Lawrence Killian – conga drums, bailophone
Billy Hart – drums

Recorded: 1971 Live at ‘The East’, NYC

Taken from the Japanese CD: UCCI-9133

I woke up in another hemisphere
And you were gone.
I had no address,
No telephone
No family
No identity.
I spent the mornings sleeping in and the afternoons
Walking broken sidewalks in the unbelievable heat and light
Reacquainting myself with exile
Circumspectly watching the tourists, trying not to feel like one
Stranger
Climb the hills of the old city, a never-ending conversation in my skull
Like when I would hike in the mountains alone
Except, here, I was surrounded by thousands of people
Strangers
I woke up in a another month
And you still weren´t there
But there was a telephone now
And almost a place to live, to call home, though it was getting hard to find.
I was surrounded by beautiful music, beautiful bodies
Dancing beautifully and naturally as this language I can barely speak
My ears vibrate with a quiet joy but bittersweet
As I walk down the broken sidewalks to my temporary bed
To riotous American Soul Music inside my head, reminding me of
The only dance partner who really meant much
A trumpet riffing ‘Camp Town Races’ makes me grin in the new moon’s half-light
I knew at that moment that I was in need of a Healing Song
And I did not, not yet, know just how deep that need can ache.

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Bobby Hutcherson & Harold Land – San Francisco (1970) 320kbs

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Photobucket

01 – Goin’ down south (7:05) (Sample)
02 – Prints Tie (7:24) (Hutcherson)
03 – Jazz (5:18) (Sample)
04 – Ummh (7:42) (Hutcherson)
05 – Procession (5:40) (Hutcherson)
06 – A Night In Barcelona (7:20) (Land)

LINK HERE!

Bobby Hutcherson – Vibes, Marimba, Percussion
Harold Land – Tenor Sax, Flute, Oboe
Joe Sample – Acoustic & Electric Pianos
John Williams – Acoustic & Electric Basses
Mickey Roker – Drums

Produced by Duke Pearson at UA Studios LA
Recording Date: July 15 1970

Review by Steve Huey

Bobby Hutcherson’s late-’60s partnership with tenor saxophonist Harold Land had always produced soulful results, but not until San Francisco did that translate into a literal flirtation with funk and rock. After watching several advanced post-bop sessions gather dust in the vaults, Hutcherson decided to experiment with his sound a bit, but San Francisco still doesn’t wind up the commercial jazz-funk extravaganza that purists might fear. Instead, Hutcherson and Land stake out a warm and engaging middle ground between muscular funk and Coltrane-style modality; in other words, they have their cake and eat it too. Joined by pianist/keyboardist Joe Sample (also of the Jazz Crusaders), acoustic/electric bassist John Williams, and drummer Mickey Roker, Hutcherson and Land cook up a series of spacious, breezy grooves that sound unlike any other record in the vibist’s discography (even his more commercial fusion sessions). The selections — all group-member originals — often skirt the edges of fusion, but rarely play it as expected; they might float some spare tradeoffs over a loping, heavy bass groove, throw in an oboe solo by Land, or — as on the slowest piece — keep time only with intermittently spaced piano chords. It’s all done with enough imagination and harmonic sophistication to achieve the rare feat of holding appeal for traditional jazz and rare-groove fans alike. It’s a shame Hutcherson didn’t explore this direction more, because San Francisco is not only one of his best albums, but also one of his most appealing and accessible. [Note: The song descriptions in the liner notes often match up with different titles on the CD reissue, suggesting that the tracks may have been scrambled to a startling degree. If the liners are correct, the actual CD running order is “A Night in Barcelona,” “Goin’ Down South,” “Procession,” “Ummh,” “Jazz,” and “Prints Tie.”]

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Muhal Richard Abrams – Levels and Degrees of Light (1967) 320 kbs

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Muhal Richard Abrams – Levels And Degrees Of Light (1967) 320 kbs {DD 413}

Review by Brian Olewnick (allmusic.com)
Levels and Degrees of Light was the first recording under Muhal Richard Abrams’ name and was a landmark album that launched the first in a long line of beautiful, musical salvos from the AACM toward the mainstream jazz world. The title track finds Abrams broadly tracing out some of the territory he would continue to explore in succeeding decades, an ethereal, mystic quality (evinced by Penelope Taylor’s otherworldly vocalizing and Gordon Emmanuel’s shimmering vibes) balanced by a harsh and earthy bluesiness set forth by the leader’s piercing clarinet. “The Bird Song” begins with a fine, dark poetry recitation by David Moore (oh! for the days when one didn’t approach a poem on a jazz album with great trepidation) before evanescing into a whirlwind of percussion, bird whistles, and violin (the latter by Leroy Jenkins in one of his first recorded appearances). When the band enters at full strength with Anthony Braxton (in his first recording session), the effect is explosive and liberating, as though Abrams’ band had stood on the shoulders of Coltrane, Coleman, and Taylor and taken a massive, daring leap into the future. It’s a historic performance. The final track offers several unaccompanied solo opportunities, spotlighting Abrams’ sumptuous piano and the under-recognized bass abilities of Charles Clark. This is a milestone recording and belongs in the collection of any modern jazz fan.

Tracks
1. Levels And Degrees Of Light
2. The Bird Song
3. My Thoughts Are My Future-Now And Forever