Roaratorio

Roaratorio
	Artist: Title: Label: Format: Price:	The Music Ensemble s/t Roaratorio CD $13
The Music Ensemble was a free jazz collective that was active during the mid-'70s. Its core members were Roger Baird, Billy Bang, Malik Baraka, Daniel Carter, and William Parker, though their ranks also occasionally expanded to included collaborators such as Earl Freeman, Dewey Johnson, Herb Kahn (who is heard on one track here), and Jerome Cooper. The group didn't have any recordings issued during its lifespan, but interest in the band escalated as the reputations of its members grew. Thankfully, this disc was issued in 2001 and provides documentation of a key period during the so-called loft years of New York City free jazz. The Music Ensemble played freely improvised music that could be heard as precursors to later groups to feature some of these musicians. Indeed, they had a musical approach that is often applicable to bands with whom Daniel Carter collaborates - expansive, open, patient, exploratory, sometimes tumultuous, and totally improvised, seemingly more concerned with an overall group sound than with spotlighting soloists. The disc is also noteworthy for its documentation of trumpeter Malik Baraka, a barely recorded musician who was influential within this community of improvisers, who passed away on December 26, 1982. As one might expect, the recording quality of these long-dormant tracks is a bit distant, but gives the disc a "back in the mists of time" touch that is somewhat complementary to the music. (I'm guessing that it probably wouldn't work so well with a high energy session.) Evocative liner notes from Baird, Bang, Carter, and Parker round out the set. Credits: Roger Baird: drums, percussion, tabla, flutes Billy Bang: violin, percussion Malik Baraka: trumpet Daniel Carter: tenor & alto saxophones, flutes, drums, percussion William Parker: bass Herb Kahn: bass [one track]
	Artist Title: Label: Format: Price:	Talibam! with Daniel Carter The New Nixon Tapes Roaratorio LP $12
Since 2003, NYCs Talibam! have been charting a course through the improv waters in a way that few other groups can pull off. Rock, jazz, noise and all stops in between collide in an aggressive mix that defines free music in the best sense of the term: nothing is deemed out of bounds. Too much fun to be a po-faced postmodern exercise, and too expertly played to be sunk in a morass of good intentions, The New Nixon Tapes hurtles through two side-long pieces in an agile cascade of rhythmic and melodic ideas. Kevin Shea (drums) and Matt Mottel (synthesizer) have worked with Cooper-Moore and Rhys Chatham, among others; here they’re joined by master saxophonist / trumpeter / flautist Daniel Carter. Recorded live in the WFMU studios. MP3 download coupon included.”