As the title suggests, this is more of a group album, and is listed in some places as such. It's generally a little more straight-ahead that the albums that preceded it and followed it - Jones is deferring to trumpeter Clark Terry and saxaphonist James Moody, neither of whom he had played with before.
The fusion touches of "The Main Force" are nowhere to be seen - guitarist Roland Prince has a more laid-back, supportive role than Ryo Kawasaki from the former album. Keyboards are provided by Albert Dailey - his rhodes work is as solid as ever - not working with the onboard FX, but more working in a blues-based piano style, while still mindful of the electric instrument's tonality.
Mostly, the tracks are a showcase for solos by Moody, Terry and altoist Bunky Green, who would come to the fore in "Time Capsule" the year after. Producer Ed Bland's composition "Moody Magic" is the closest track to the more organised and composed structures that would follow on that album. The other standout for me here is Bunky Green's "Blues for Clark", with great solos by Dailey, Terry and Green. Check previews of both of these tracks at the top of the post.
Hope you enjoy this one! Please thank Luis for the rip.
Elvin Jones - drums Clark Terry - trumpet and flugelhorn James Moody - tenor sax Bunky Green - alto sax Roland Prince - guitar Albert Dailey - electric piano, piano Angel Allende - percussion David Williams - bass
PRODUCTION
Vanguard Records VSD 79390 Recorded NYC November 18th, 1976 Produced by Ed Bland Recording Engineers - Charlie Repka, Jeff Zaraya Mixer - David Baker Design - Jules Halfant Photograph - Joel Brodsky
Baby Grandpa has done great new rips of the two funky albums by Nytro, produced by Norman Whitfield in 1977 and 1979, and asked me to write a post for it.
So head on over and check 'em out there - and catch me blabbing on somewhere else for a change :)
Naturally, these have been added to the Whitfield discography here.
Elvin Jones' final album for the Vanguard label in 1977 was his most melodic and "produced" album from the period. His trademark fiery style is slightly reigned in within these highly arranged and produced tracks, which delve further into group-based jazz-funk fusion - quite different from the looser, post-electric Miles jamming which infused the previous year's "The Main Force", which I posted yesterday.
That said, there's some great playing and textures on "Time Capsule", with ample solo space offered and taken with gusto within these tighter structures. After this album, Jones would return to more 'traditional' post-bop territory and acoustic instrumentation with his newly-named "Jazz Machine" on 1978's "Remembrance" for the MPS label.
"Frost Bite" (excerpt)
Guitarist Ryo Kawasaki and percussionist Angel Allende return from the previous album. Whereas Kawasaki's electric edge somewhat stood out on "The Main Force", here it has become something of the norm. Once again he holds composition credits for the opening track : "Frost Bite".
With the reeds players working more in unison melodies, and Kawasaki contributing single lines and wah-chops, Kenny Barron's fender rhodes holds much of the harmonic background for the album. He had appeared on one track of 1975's "New Agenda", but here he's a strong presence throughout.
"Time Capsule" (excerpt)
Barron's solo work is great on tracks like "Time Capsule", "Spacing". and my personal standout track "Moon Dance"(see preview at top of post). The album catches Barron in his peak period as a rhodes player, coming after his albums "Sunset to Dawn", "Peruvian Blue" and "Lucifer" ; and just before "Innocence", after which he would mainly return to acoustic piano. So one more for the Kenny on electric piano discography.
Only Frank Foster remains from the previous album's reeds lineup, here just contributing his soprano sax to Ed Bland's track "Digital Display".
"Digital Display" (excerpt)
The dominant new guest here is alto saxophonist Bunky Green, who composed three of the five tracks here. After a decade-long recording break he had returned earlier in the year with his Vanguard album "Transformations", also produced by Ed Bland. Much of that album borders on proto-"smooth jazz", with highly modal covers of pop hits, but on "Time Capsule" he has a rougher, more interesting edge, perhaps from the company he's keeping here.
Tenor saxophonist George Coleman had played on some of Jones' later Blue Note releases, as well as a few Strata-East releases like Charles Tolliver's "Impact!" ; the Jazz Contemporaries' "Reasons In Tonality" and Keno Duke's "Sense Of Values". In 1977, the same year as this album, he also played on Charles Earland's "Smokin".
In the few years preceding this album, bass player Juni Booth had worked on Larry Young's "Lawrence Of Newark" ; McCoy Tyner's "Song of the New World" and "Atlantis"; and Joe Bonner's "Angel Eyes" . 2nd bassist Milt Hinton has been described as probably appearing "on more records than any other musician", so feel free to peruse his thirteen pages of credits.
Vanguard Records, 1977 VSD 79389 Producer - Ed Bland Mixed By - David Baker Engineer - Charlie Repka , Jeff Zaraya Photography - Joel Brodsky Design - Jules Halfant Montage - Hy Radin
Rip from deleted Vanguard CD re-release by Simon666
Other albums linked in this post are at the blogs : Ile Oxumare, Strata-East Fan Club; Magic Purple Sunshine, Nine Sisters, Orgy In Rhythm, My Jazz World, Everything Is On The one, Pharoah's Dance, Raider of the Lost Ark, Jamz for the Soul, Mientras Otros Duermen, My Favourite Sound, Marramua, and Musica Y Programas.
A year along from "New Agenda", Elvin Jones and his group are in a jamming mode, working over looser structures with improvisational groupings amongst the reeds and percussion, with plenty of solo space as well. "The Main Force" is a more african-focused event with early fusion touches, ripped freshly from vinyl and presented here today in WAV and MP3.
Sometimes it sounds like they're all auditioning for Miles Davis' mid-70s live band, none so more than guitarist Ryo Kawasaki, who's coming off Gil Evans' "Music of Jimi Hendrix" and "There Comes a Time" albums, and here keeps his foot planted firmly on the wah-wah pedal, still a year away from smoothing things out considerably on his solo album "Juice". Kawasaki's track "Salty Iron" opens the album.
"Salty Iron" (excerpt)
There are no less than four reeds players here; with Frank Foster and Steve Grossman joined this time round by Dave Liebman (who along with Grossman, of course, had successfully auditioned for the Davis band), and Pat La Barbara, who'd been working with Buddy Rich for the previous decade on albums like "Roar of '74" and "Stick It". La Barbara would continue as a central player for Jones for several years after this.
"Song of Rejoicing ..." (excerpt)
The woodwinds wind around each other in afro-style coils pushing eastwards on the sprawling fifteen-minute jam "Song of Rejoicing after returning from a hunt", which closes the album. The track is adapted by Jones from the djoboko rhythm of the Ba-Benzele pygmies; and arranged by Gene Perla. Perla doesn't play on this album, but would go on to form Stone Alliance the next year with Grossman and Liebman.
Or, as Todd Barkan writes in his hysterical liner notes : "Here we are taken on a liferaft shooting the rapids of Elvin's bloodstream. A stream of consciousness hurtling us through lush, green river valleys into dens, electric jungles, and out onto sun-yellowed plains - flowing all the way back to the blood of his African ancestors."
I'll take two of whatever Todd's on, then chase them with a few margaritas.
Elvin Jones gets to break out with his signature thunder rolls on Gene Perla's"Sweet Mama", built around some wild impro from bassist Dave Williams. Williams had played on the first Blackbyrds album and Kenny Barron's "Peruvian Blue", then worked again with Elvin Jones the next year on Hadley Caliman's "Celebration". His composition here is "Mini Modes" - see the preview at the top of the post.
Producer Ed Bland contributes the modal "Philomene", and the man holding down the rhodes (and occasional piano) is Albert Dailey, fresh off Azar Lawrence's "Summer Solstice" and soon to record on Reggie Workman's "Conversation".
The other percussionist, and the other Dave, is Dave Johnson. Imagine naming your child 'Dave Johnson', destined to be lost amongst forty-eight other 'Dave Johnsons' at the All Music Guide. Child abuse, pure and simple. Sensibly, this particular Dave took on the name Mguanda in the early 1970s, and appeared on both Bayete's classic "Worlds Around the Sun" and Horacee Arnold's "Tales of the Exonerated Flea".
Hope you all enjoy this further slice of Elvin.
TRACKLIST
01. 'Salty Iron' - 5:15 - (Ryo Kawasaki) 02. 'Sweet Mama' - 6:22 - (Gene Perla) 03. 'Mini Modes' - 10:32 - (David Williams) 04. 'Philomene' - 4:38 - (Ed Bland) 05. 'Song Of Rejoicing After Returning From A Hunt' - 15:43 Adapted by Elvin Jones from the Djoboko Rhythm of the Ba-Benzele Pygmies; arranged by Gene Perla.
Vanguard Records VSD 79272 Producer - Ed Bland Recording Engineer, editing and mixing - Ben Taylor Cover photos - Joel Brodsky, Frank Kolleogy Design - Rafael Rovira
Other albums linked to in this post are at the blogs Ile Oxumaré, Regaláme Esta Noche, JJ's Jazz and Such, Music You Don't Care About, My Jazz World, Pharoah's Dance, Flabbergasted Vibes, Happy as a rat in a Cheese Factory, Into the Rhythm, and DJ Ulison Professor Groove. Please thank these folks when you visit them - comments keep music blogs alive.
Regarded as one of the world's greatest drummers, with his alternately thunderous and light-skipping percussive styles, Elvin Jones will always be remembered as Coltrane's drummer from the 1960-66 period, but also has an interesting output as a leader in his own right.
His Impulse and Blue Note albums straddled both avant-garde and post-bop influences, always allowing plenty of space for his collaborators, and by the 1970s, albums like Merry Go Round were beginning to annoy purists like l'il Scotty Yanow in their eclectic grab-bag that began to explore influences like latin and brazilian styles.
He continued to explore all corners of jazz in when he moved across to Vanguard Records in 1975, in a group of albums that I'm going to present in a series of posts. I didn't have this one, so my friend WK stepped forward with a nice 320 vinyl rip.
"New Agenda" was his first release for the new company in 1975. There's a pretty heavyweight reeds section behind him here - mainstay Steve Grossman with help on different tracks from Azar Lawrence, Joe Farrell and Frank Foster. That's how many winds players you need to compete with Jones' snare drum.
"Agenda" (excerpt)
As if the power of his kit wasn't enough, on this album he brings in three percussionists - Candido, Guillermo Franco and Frank Ippolito, but this doesn't result in the bombastic chaos you might expect - rather, Jones works with them in a cohesive unit, often exploring subtle cymbal work to complete the percussive textures; and really letting them have their heads on the closer "Agenda".
No review for this album on AMG, presumably because it contains the dreaded, jazz-destroying electric piano, adroitly handled here by Kenny Barron on the opening soul-jazzer "Someone's Rocking My Jazzboat" ; and by Gene Perla on the aforementioned "Agenda" and "Stefanie" (penned by producer Ed Bland and later recorded by James Moody, see file within his discography here). Anyway, Barron's presence gets this added to the Kenny on electric piano discography.
"Haresah" (excerpt)
The pianoless tracks are anchored harmonically by guitarist Roland Prince, a veteran of many fine early 70s albums like Buddy Terry's "Awareness", Larry Willis' "Inner Crisis"; Shirley Scott's "Lean On Me"; Roy Haynes' "Senyah", Pete Yellin's "It's the Right Thing" and Compost's "Life Is Round". Here he's got a restrained style that on tracks like "Haresah" that almost mimics the tonality of Barron's and Perla's rhodes on other tracks.
AUSTRALIAN JAZZ - THE LIBRARY CONNECTION #3 Some jazz, some bossa rhythms, and some easy-listening-musique-concrète soundtrack all in the one package. What a bargain!
John Sangster's fascinating soundtrack album for a series of nature documentaries is buried behind one of the one of the worst, most generic titles of all time - not to mention the skanky record cover, which doesn't even have his name on it - but that was the lot of the commissioned library/soundtrack composer in 1970s Australia.
On the upside, that's probably a factor that allowed me to grab it for $3 at a street market a few months back, rather than having to pay the hundreds of dollars that some of his albums go for. Anyway, it's something of a buried treasure that we'll try and dig up today.
John Sangster was a vibraphonist, percussionist and composer who started out in fairly straight-ahead jazz groups as a cornettist, releasing two albums in the late 1940s. During the 1960s he developed an interest in the avant garde and then broadened his listening and composing to latin and other musical forms, releasing three albums that are now quite hard to get hold of - "The Trip" (1967), "The Joker Is Wild" (1968) and "Ahead of Hair" (1969).
The last of these was an idiosyncratic, percussion-laden take on the musical "Hair", recorded while he was working as a drummer in the Sydney stage version alongside prog-rock group Tully. Here's the title track (thanks Reza!) :
"Hair" - John Sangster DOWNLOAD TRACK - not included in album download
During the mid to late 1960s, Sangster was also a member of the Don Burrows Quartet, and played on the album "The Jazz Sound Of the Don Burrows Quartet", previously featured on this blog.
That group, combined with Sangster's vibes, formed the core sound for a series of soundtracks by renowned soundtrack composer Sven Libaek, including "Inner Space" and "Solar Flares".
"Australia and All That Jazz" was commissioned by the Australian Museum - a museum of natural history - as the soundtrack for a series of 16mm wildlife documentary films by the museum's filmmaker Howard Hughes (no, not that one). Working here with the Burrows group and three additional woodwind players, Sangster himself plays vibraphone, an array of percussion and occasional simple fender rhodes (see the "Rain" preview at the top).
Ironically, the bulk of the funding for the project was provided by mining company BHP, perhaps as a payback for the fact that they were ripping up the Australian landscape at the time and wiping out much of the wildlife being celebrated here.
"First Light"
Sangster had previously worked on Sven Libaek's soundtrack for a series of nature documentaries that ran under the title "Nature Walkabout". Libaek's 1965 soundtrack had followed the standard formula, applying "human" drama to the scenes of animal activities and the power of nature.
from internal booklet, full scans in downloads
"The Birds"
For a nature documentary score, Sangster's approach here is radically different to that of Libaek - he incorporates the sound of nature itself into the soundtrack, via field recording, tape manipulation and melodic scoring for instruments - including Don Burrow's flute utilising echo-delay - that reflects the calls of birds, other animals and the elements.
While these are techniques that were common to the work of classical and experimental composers of the time, it was unusual to hear them both in a jazz context and used in such a lyrical fashion. Later on the the 70s and 80s these sort of techniques were used and abused in a range of appalling "new age" music, but here there's still a freshness.
"The City"
Nature's drama is also reflected in rhythmic sequences that reference occasional latin and afro-style beats, in the time-honoured 70s library tradition of non-european cultures being seen as 'wild', but also stemming from Sangster's genuine love for and engagement with a range of musics.
The first of his albums to cross over with his environmental interests, it's divided into two sides : "Where Water is Plentiful" and "Dry Australia", referring to the titles of two of the films the music was originally scored for. This album took the structures of and ideas behind the original recordings and developed them further in the studio.
"man, the destroyer"
I've got several albums by Sangster and others to follow in a continuing examination of the "library connection", so I hope you enjoy this one. The WAV and MP3 downloads in the comments both include scans of the four page internal booklets from the album.
TRACKLIST
All tracks written by John Sangster except Track 1 by Don Burrows.
SIDE ONE - "WHERE WATER IS PLENTIFUL"
01. 'first light' The bush comes to life
02. 'sunrise' The rising sun brings to life the flowers' colours - the Waratah, Gymea Lily and Banksia. This composition features Don Burrows' bass flute.
03. 'the birds' features Graeme Lyall's tenor saxaphone
04. 'procession of tadpoles & waterstriders' Don Burrows on alto flute
05. 'possum' Errol Buddle on bassoon
06. 'forest with birds' John Sangster on vibraphone and Don Burrows on alto flute
07. 'man, the destroyer' Tony Buchanan's bass clarinet depicts the destruction of this beautiful environment - but with care, it will survive.
SIDE TWO - "DRY AUSTRALIA"
08. 'the desert' Don Burrows - bass flute
09. 'skull & bones' The sun-bleached remains of victims of drought
10. 'the sand swimmer' Sangster on vibraphone slap-mallets
11. 'rain' Water brings the desert to life. John Sangster on fender rhodes.
12. 'the knob tailed gecko' Errol Buddle on tenor saxaphone
13. 'the centre' Vibraphone improvisation by John Sangster
14. 'the city' Even the distant city-dweller has his responsibility to preserve this land
MUSICIANS
John Sangster - vibraphone, electric piano, quijada, bells and windchimes, bongos, conga drum. Erroll Buddle - flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, tenor sax Don Burrows - Concert, alto and bass flutes; clarinet Tony Buchanan - Flute, clarinet and bass clarinet George Golla - classical and electric guitars Graeme Lyall - Flue, clarinet and tenor sax Derek Fairbrass - drums Ed Gaston - bass
PRODUCTION DETAILS
Cherry Pie Records CPS-1008 Recorded at Cherry Pie Studios, Sydney, 1971 Recording Engineers - Warren Mills, Max Harding Studio Technician - Godfrey Gamble Cover Design and Layout - Adrian Baine Photography - Howard Hughes Front Cover - Darke's Forest, New South Wales Back Cover - near Bourke, western New South Wales
Other blogs referenced here are The Manchester Morgue, Fine Folk and Rafter Lights. Please thank these folks if you visit them and download their records - comments keep music blogs alive.
Great new jazz label blog by Sawanotsuru, covering the Cobblestone Records discography. Many great records, including the Norman Connors one we've got at this blog. Check out the Cobblestone blog!
I read a few Michael Jackson biographies around the time of "Off The Wall", shortly before the first abuse allegations surfaced. I was fascinated with both his music and his weirdness.
I'm three years younger than him, and it struck me that in a parallel universe, he could have been part of his generation of gay men who avoided the hidden life; who moved beyond the stunted emotional-sexual development that sometimes afflicted the generations above us. Even these days, straight guys fall in love at 12, cry secretly in their mother's arms at 13 when they experience their first rejection by a girl, all the time supported towards adulthood as they learn these lessons. Gay guys go through this in early adulthood, in public, at the same time they're trying to form a new peer support group, surrounded by alcohol in noisy venues. So you have to accelerate the process and catch up, grow up.
While there are billions of people who had and have greater personal battles than Jackson, I find it very sad that he never caught up, and remained lost in a perpetual notion of childhood where he seemed to abuse his power and waste much of his extraordinary talent. Even from our distant, iconic view of him, it seems clear that he never really experienced personal happiness to match the joy that some of his music gave to many of us.
There was a scene in one of the scandal-ridden biographies that has Michael at 16, being discovered in his room by a Jackson's housemaid, sort of half undressed, hanging out with a guy of his own age, things are alluded to but not seen. I just wonder if a more supportive world could have split off to a different future at this point, a world in which he might have ended up as a well-adjusted, happy gay person.
Hopefully after the media drama subsides in a few weeks, we're still left with his extraordinary calls to the dancefloor, like this track "Lovely One" from the Jackson's "Triumph", where his infectuous joy at the rhythm means that we just can't keep still.
This album, containing some of Mongo's earliest recordings a leader/percussionist, was first released as "Changó" in 1955 on Tico Records. Vaya Records re-released the recordings in 1978 as "Drums and Chants", from which this rip comes. Later it was also compiled on an album named "Mongo Santamaria and his Afro-Cuban Beaters".
Here's Thom Jurek from AMG :
"Whatever possessed Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria to release this recording of traditional chants and drumming modes from the various traditions of the Afro-Cuban experience reinvented him not only for his own people, but for the legions of Americanskis who only knew him as the cat who did the Latinized soul-jazz version of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," which became a pop hit.
Here, Santamaria enlisted the help of Carlos "Potato" Valdes, Antar Daly, Silvestre Mendez, and Julio Collazo in a burning collection of rhythms and call-and-response chants from the various traditions that make up the island's roots music -- Yoruba, Lucumi, Dahomeyanos, Carabalies, and the Congos -- all of whom originated in the river region of Niger before they crossed the Atlantic.
In each case, the listener is treated to a fantastically complex recorded example of rhythms and then chanted information that accompanies them: harvest songs, traveling songs, songs of sorrow, songs of mating, and more. Occasionally, as on "Margarito", a wooden flute accompanies the song, and in the case of "Congo Mania", a trumpet does the same thing. There are numerous drums employed to both solo and "choir" effect like the batas, bembe, congos, quinto, and more.
This is deep Afro-Cuban music from the heart of the Niger region, crossing the ocean with blood, sweat, and tears and finally taking root in the land of sugar cane. There are stories and legends in these tracks -- they are as authentic and raw as it gets."
Link is in the comments, please thank Rowan for ripping this for us.
This is a blog about jazz, latin, brazil. funk, hiphop and soul.
I'm a sound and film lecturer, a DJ who plays the rhodes while I mix. I'm also an artist/composer who's done a lot of political work in film, performance and sound. Enjoy the music.
