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Rob Brown Ensemble
Crown Trunk Root Funk
AUM Fidelity
CD
$13 |
“Rob Brown is an awesome alto saxophonist, a mercurial improviser who is perpetually inventive, and AUM Fidelity has recorded him many times over the years as a foundation member of the groups of William Parker. In this time, Brown has revealed himself to be a composer and group leader of distinct gifts; this is our first release with Mr. Brown as leader. A principal focus of Crown Trunk Root Funk is deep grooves, often dark and ominous, with brightness provided by Brown’s beautifully indelible melodies and the highly exploratory work of this extraordinary band. Parker provides the root bass, and drummer Gerald Cleaver brings his supremely sensitive musicality and Detroit-bred funk. Pianist and fellow Detroit native Craig Taborn is likewise endlessly inventive within this tremendously rewarding sonic ecosystem.”
Credits:
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Craig Taborn: piano, electronics
William Parker: bass
Gerald Cleaver: drums
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Daniel Carter & Reuben Radding
Luminescence
AUM Fidelity
CD
$13 |
Daniel Carter is a musician, writer, visual artist, conversationalist, and all-around inspirational spirit based in New York City who has been creating freely improvised music since the early 1970s. He performs most often on alto and tenor saxophones, trumpet, clarinet, and flute, though he also plays drums, guitar, and sings. While Carter is probably most well-known for his key role in long-standing free jazz collectives such as Other Dimensions in Music and Test, he also regularly collaborates with rock bands, abstract noisemakers, singer-songwriters, and more. These projects include some relatively famous outfits, but most often involve countless others who are less familiar to the general public. It’s probably safe to say that he has collaborated with thousands of musicians over the years.
Reuben Radding was born in Washington, DC, in 1966 and took up music as a young man, participating in that area's active punk scene. (Hear him on Dain Bramage's I Scream Not Coming Down LP, which also features a young Dave Grohl.) He moved to New York City in 1988, studied bass with Mark Dresser, and started to collaborate with many downtown jazz musicians. Today he leads several groups, runs the Pine Ear label out of the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, and is active on the Klezmer and Balkan music scenes.
Radding lived in Seattle from 1997 until 2002, and in 2001 he received a grant that enabled him to bring Daniel Carter to Seattle. He and Carter had performed together in various configurations since 1993, but didn’t have the opportunity to fully investigate their collaborative duo. Airline luggage restrictions as a result of the September 11 attacks meant that Carter could only bring one instrument with him on his trip out west. He brought his alto saxophone, which he has described as his "main axe".
Luminescence consists of both live and studio recordings made during October 2001. Carter and Radding are sensitive and empathetic listeners, with each player playing a supporting role while also being assertive of his own ideas. Their shared experience in a wide breadth of musical concepts enables them to cover a fairly broad range of sounds without seeming forced or contrived. Carter has something of a tendency to be typecast as an exclusively high-energy player by folks who are not well-versed in his overall aesthetic, which may be one reason why the lyricism of Luminescence seems to have caught a number of people off-guard. Regardless, this is lovely music.
Credits:
Daniel Carter: alto saxophone
Reuben Radding: bass
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William Parker and Hamid Drake
First Communion + Piercing the Veil: Volume 1 Complete
AUM Fidelity
2 CD
$18 |
2007 reissue of William Parker and Hamid Drake's classic Piercing the Veil, with a full-length bonus disc of a killer live performance recorded at AUM Fidelity's homebase in April 2000. The music is in the tradition of Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell's classic Mu sessions for BYG/Actuel, with free jazz musicians taking cues from other fire musics from around the world and running with them. (The title "Black Cherry" from Piercing would seem to acknowledge these roots.) Joyous and powerful music.
Credits:
William Parker: bass, balafon, shakuhachi, bombard, dumbek, slit drum
Hamid Drake: drums, tabla, frame drum, bells
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William Parker and Hamid Drake
Summer Snow
AUM Fidelity
CD
$13 |
William Parker and Hamid Drake have been one of the most celebrated and prolific rhythm sections in modern jazz for over a decade, and they clearly love to create music together. They are especially adept at incorporating a broad range of musical traditions into their sound and they tend to give this approach a greater focus when working as a duo. Summer Snow covers a lot of territory, from meditative pieces for shakuhachi, to loose, swinging, and funky bass/drums tracks. "Faces" is a personal favorite, a lovely dance for doson'ngoni + frame drum.
William Parker: doson'ngoni, shakuhachi, dumbek, talking drum, water bowls, bass
Hamid Drake: tabla, frame drum, gongs, drums
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William Parker / Raining on the Moon
Corn Meal Dance
AUM Fidelity
CD
$13 |
“Corn Meal Dance again makes abundantly clear William Parker's multi-faceted talents as bassist, composer, poet, bandleader and songwriter. Raining On The Moon is the extraordinary group which seamlessly fuses all of these prodigious gifts: his long-standing Quartet with Hamid Drake, Rob Brown, Lewis Barnes is here exquisitely augmented by singer Leena Conquest breathing further passion into William's lyrics once again, and pianist Eri Yamamoto for the first wonderful time. William Parker’s soul-nourishing poetry and supremely catchy melodies and grooves are brought to scintillating life by a group featuring some of the finest improvisers in the world. Further to the full-group work here are a pair of supremely tender Leena and Eri duets on 'Prayer' and 'Poem For June Jordan'.” – AUM Fidelity
William Parker: bass
Lewis “Flip” Barnes: trumpet
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Leena Conquest: vocals
Hamid Drake: drums
Eri Yamamoto: piano
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Triptych Myth
The Beautiful
AUM Fidelity
CD
$13 |
Triptych Myth is a trio comprised of Cooper-Moore, Tom Abbs, and Chad Taylor, three very active members of the NYC free jazz scene. In their early days, the group incorporated some of Cooper-Moore's handmade instruments into their performances, but they soon settled into a strictly piano/bass/drums format and set out to be a working band with an established repertoire of tunes. Recorded in 2005, The Beautiful is the result of a focused period in the group's development. It's a varied and rewarding set - intense, catchy, heartfelt, lovely - with elegies for Wilber Morris and Frida Kahlo, the funky tale of Poppa's Gin in the Chicken Feed, and several restless, more abstract tracks. Even when their material is lyrical and accessible, the group offers unexpected juxtapositions and arrangements. Cooper-Moore contributes most of the compositions and they are among the strongest he's recorded in his thirty-plus year career.
Credits:
Cooper-Moore: piano
Tom Abbs: bass
Chad Taylor: drums
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David S. Ware Quartet
Renunciation
AUM Fidelity
CD
$13 |
Fairly momentous recording of what might be the final U.S. gig from the David S. Ware Quartet. Many aspects of this recording lend itself to the feeling of an occasion - the devotional feel of "Ganesh Sound," the boisterous response of the audience, and Lewis Barnes' enthusiastic MC work. As was their wont at other stages of development, the group makes effective use of breaking the quartet down into solo, duo, and trio configurations, which results in the full band material delivering full oomph when they all come together. Apart from their live standard "Mikuro's Blues," all other compositions are previously unrecorded.
David S. Ware: tenor saxophone
Matthew Shipp: piano
William Parker: bass
Guillermo E. Brown: drums
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