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The Music Ensemble
s/t
Roaratorio
CD
$13
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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]
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