Like his mentor Sun Ra, Ahmed Abdullah understands the power and significance of a name. Diaspora, the combo he leads with Monique Ngozi Nri, stands for “Dispersions of the Spirt of Ra,” and they joined AD to discuss the continual recreation of Ra’s music, Afrofuturism, and the possibilities of the future.
Category: Jazz
Miles Davis :: Antibes, France July 1969
Five days after the first moon landing. Five days prior to the release of In a Silent Way. One month before the recording of Bitches Brew. The Miles Davis quintet at the 1969 Festival Mondial du Jazz d’Antibes, La Pinède, Juan-les-Pins.
John Coltrane :: Joe Brazil Bootleg (Detroit, 1958)
Recorded September 25, 1958 in the basement of Detroit-based saxophonist Joe Brazil, this bootleg finds John Coltrane in a loose, sentimental, and as always, spirited mood, and its dissemination online adds new wrinkles to the folklore of Trane.
And Then One Day: A Guide to the Music of Carla Bley
On the release of Carla Bley’s new album Life Goes On, Winston Cook-Wilson provides an overview of composer, bandleader, and pianist’s multifaceted career, from her pop and funk-inflected ’70s and ’80s work to her more recent “microcosms of a musical personality that is exceptionally difficult to distill.”
Leo Takami :: Unknown
Tokyo-based composer and guitarist Leo Takami’s new album, Felis Catus and Silence, sees release next month via Unseen Worlds. An enthusiastically imaginative blend of new age sounds, Takami shapes Windham Hill-inspired guitar compositions with elements of jazz, minimalism, classical music, Japanese gagaku, and ambient textures.
Miles Davis :: In A Silent Way
In a year loaded with albums turning fifty, few have retained the genre-defying staying power and influence of In A Silent Way. Recorded during a single three-hour session in July 1969 with producer Teo Macero, the album marked a decisive and definitive turn for both Miles Davis and the future of jazz. Meditative, moody and minimal in approach, this was the calm before the storm as the following year would witness yet another reinvention of Davis with the release of Bitches Brew.
Alice Coltrane :: My Favorite Things
While her late husband’s 1961 modal rendering helped reinvigorate the Rodgers and Hammerstein chestnut, the orchestral presentation Alice put forth a decade later is a beast of an altogether different stripe. Kicking off Coltrane’s sixth lp, World Galaxy, the instantly recognizable melody quickly dissolves amidst a very free, swirling cacophony of sound….something like the aural equivalent of David Bowman’s star gate sequence. High praise, indeed!
Alice Coltrane :: Live At The Berkeley Community Theater 1972
This is a bootleg, make no mistake! But however you hear it, you gotta hear it (perhaps over on YouTube?). A major addition to the Alice Coltrane canon, this soundboard recording features the pioneering musician and her incredible band (Charlie Haden on bass, Ben Riley on drums, Aashish Khan on sarod, Pranesh Khan on tabla and Bobby W. on tamboura and percussion) journeying fearlessly across the astral plane. Four tracks, fours sides! Tons of AC’s intense organ hijinks – how did she get that crazy sound?
Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise (Documentary)
For those interested in the potent alchemy that was the brew of bandleader, philosopher, player and poet, Sun Ra, filmmaker Robert Mugge’s documentary “A Joyful Noise” is essential. Released in 1980, the hour long film captures Sun Ra’s Arkestra performing in Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore, along with behind the scenes footage of the players at rest, rehearsal and in interview.
Stream the film, in its entirety, below.
John Coltrane :: Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings
Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings compiles every song Coltrane cut as a bandleader in that pivotal year, and captures him at a crucial stage in his journey, his first true attempt to will his sax into new territory.
Deep Into Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of
On Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of, the new age trappings are gone, the subtle accompaniment of piano, “gong cycles,” gamelan influences (based on his travels and study in Bali and Nepal), the still-in-there-someplace Midwestern Kottke vibes, all synthesized so exquisitely. The secret sauce in his playing is partly due to his instrument; an old Martin D-12-20 12-string with worn down frets and dead strings. He describes it as having a “peculiar internal resonance, as though it has a small concert hall inside of it.”
Aquarium Drunkard Guide to ECM Records: The New Millennium
Welcome to the third installment of the Aquarium Drunkard Guide to ECM Records: The New Millenium. Writer James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand) explores the label’s contemporary output, that of “a boutique label in the guise of a music industry behemoth.”
Nina Simone: Zungo (Village Gate, 1961)
Nina Simone, live at the Village Gate in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, 1961, sashaying between folk, classical, and jazz.
Cosmic Pastoral: William Tyler on New Age, Windham Hill, and Emerging Sounds
The Windham Hill sound was inviting and warm, but nonetheless idiosyncratic, a hallmark of a moment when mainstream commercial success and the lack of traditional pop forms didn’t negate each other.
Charles Mingus :: Jazz in Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden
In 1973, Charles Mingus’ career was on the upswing. After a few years out of music, some band squabbles , and even getting evicted while being filmed by a documentary crew, he was finally getting […]